On onwards.... to babyhood.

Our daughter is four now and she's just amazing. It's taken me this long to get down to writing a blog about our experiences. I've kinda held off because one of the things a parent of a gifted child often experiences is ridicule. Every time they try and find out if something is 'normal' or what they can do to encourage something - somebodies got to get their boot in because clearly - they're one of those 'loopy' parents that believe their child is special above all others. The fact is, you tend to know when your child is doing things that are a little odd for their age and that sends you out for answers. With a gifted child, you're out looking for answers all the time. And what makes it particularly difficult is that 'professionals' are often the worst to scoff.

There's a lot that I don't remember, I afraid. Key things that could be helpful but - keep an eye on things - and I'll slap them in when I remember them. I can't remember a lot about the early early days. They were pretty much a blur of new parenthood and sleeplessness. I can tell you that she often didn't sleep. Awake every half hour some nights. She didn't nap as a wee toddler either. And even now.....getting her to sleep is.....interesting. She often slept with me - even from the time we were in the hospital. Although its often frowned upon and people are slamming the practice heavily now - the nurses seem to understand that if she and I were going to have a chance at bonding, we had to sleep together.

She held her own head up, pretty much from the start. I think that could be because she didn't have to try and negotiate 'normal' birth. And she hated anybody touching her head - or her hands. I remember thinking how odd that was. When people touched her hands (as people often do with newborns) she managed to make it very clear that that was not allowed.

3 months old

She was noticeably strong-willed fairly early on. In this photo, her father was looking after her for an hour or so (while I took a break in the garden). He had her in the bouncer with a play-frame and she was getting quite shirty at him moving the toys. Each time she fell asleep, he would try to move them away from her and she would reach up to grab it and stop him taking them. She'd go back to sleep again, he'd try to move them again....she'd have to stop him - all the while barely opening her eyes.

Most of her baby milestones were fairly much on time I think. Some even seemed a little late. She was crawling at 7 months, walking at 13 months, first word at 14 months. Clearly she understood things alot earlier but with talking in particular, we had the impression that she didn't see the point of it. Her first word was UP and her first real sentence came four months later. She'd been playing with my bedside cupboard and announced, "It's a door."

From then on she just motored through things including the alphabet. Its almost as if she just decided from 14 months on, now was the time to get cracking. 'Ok, we're done with this baby thing now!'