OCD

Brennan is a pretty sweet boy in my opinion, but he certainly has his own special "quirks" about him. I guess all kids do. I sometimes forget about them because I'm with him all day every day and they just come naturally to me now. But when someone else tries to help him with something or do something with him and they don't know about his OCD, watch out! He will let you know he's unhappy. So I thought I'd record a few of his OCD tendencies.

Brennan loves Dum Dum suckers. They have become my go-to object for smooth transitions when we are out and about. He knows when it's time to leave somewhere, if he leaves politely that he will often get a sucker. Yes, he has me wrapped around his finger, but it's a little Dum Dum and if it keeps him from throwing a tantrum, it's worth it to me. If you're ever trying to get Brennan to leave somewhere and he is screaming for "suck" that's what he wants. That's not really the OCD part though. He now HAS to open his own Dum Dum. He will usually let me start opening it a little bit for him, but he has to finish it or it is no good to him at all!

Dum dum stockpile - always have to make sure I have some in the diaper bag too!

Thankfully Brennan is almost always super happy to brush his teeth. It just takes a little longer than the average kid due to his OCD. He now MUST climb up on his stool independently. That part is great because he was unable to do it for a long time. When you hand him his toothbrush and turn the water on, he MUST dip the toothbrush into the water three times. It's dip in water, put in mouth, dip in water, put in mouth, and dip in water, put in mouth. Just like that. EVERY SINGLE TIME. Again, if it makes brushing teeth a happy time, I'm all for it! He also wants a little toothpaste on his brush so he can "brush" his own teeth before I give them a good brushing.

Happily dipping his toothbrush three times!

Brennan has also always loved bath time. I am so thankful because it's a peaceful and playful way to end our day. He has gone through various tubby time stages: tons of toys in the tub, no toys at all, only one particular toy. But one thing that has remained the same for a long time now is that when I'm ready to turn the water off (he's always in the bathtub as the water is filling up) he HAS to count to 10 before I turn it off. He used to get mad when it was time for the water to go off, so this became my way of giving him a warning that it was coming up and it has stuck.

Playing a kazoo during bath time!

Here's one of the weirder ones! A while back, I started reading Brennan a super short devotion from his Bible at bedtime. He then started wanting to read one at nap time, which was fine with me. We were moving right along through the devotions until we got to a page that had an illustration of a moon on it. Brennan loves the moon. He loves finding it in the sky at night and really loves if he can find it in the sky during the day. He loves Goodnight, Moon and always points out any moon in any story we read. After I read the devotion with the moon on the page he said, "More moon." I decided to flip through his little Bible and find another page with a moon illustration. I found one and read that devotion to him that night too. I didn't think anything about it until nap time the next day. He freaked out when I tried to read the devotion that was up next and would only let me read the "new moon" and "old moon" devotions. And it has been that way since. At least two months now I would say and at every nap and each night at bed I read him "new moon" and "old moon". He can recite them now.

Pointing to the moon.

I love my sweet, weird little guy!