Hello, I'll try to keep this brief as possible. I'm a FTM and my son is 15 months old. There are a lot of odd things about him piling up that I simply can't ignore any more and would like some insight from others who may have experienced the same thing. Since I�ve never had a kid and I�m a WAHM, I don�t know how much of this is normal.
Here's what I hope is a succinct listing of his interesting attributes/abilities. Tell me if I'm crazy or if my baby is possibly gifted. I need a reality check! Thanks in advance!
Physical Dev:
- Skipped crawling. First steps at 8 mos, walked independently at 10 mos. Running at 11 mos.
- Able to feed self with spoon, since about 9 mos or so.
- Can now open and close, hold markers. Able to set the marker cap on its end on table, though difficult.
- Tries to jump. Seriously, he stands with feet apart, bends his knees, and launches. Doesn�t make it off the ground, but amazingly tries to �make up for it� by lifting each individual foot off the ground rapidly at the end of his attempt.
Cognitive Dev:
- At 11 mos, able to complete a wooden peg puzzle with 8 cutouts. Worth noting that this is a cheap puzzle (not a fancy M&D), so the base is blank�there are no �cheater� under-pictures. He is now able to do two simultaneously.
- At 13 mos or so, able to do a 3-piece jigsaw if I placed the first piece. Now, able to do all on his own.
- Can identify up to 8 colors when asked to pick from a set of markers.
- Follows one- to two-step directions with little or no gesturing.
- Knows certain books by their spines � once saw 15 seconds of a Disney movie, bolted out of the room and returned with the book version (worth noting that this is a book he didn�t even like and we never got more than 2 pages into it before then. Also worth noting he picked it from a shelf of 40 books).
General/Anecdotes:
- Had always been described as an �alert� infant.
- Fascinated with minutiae: clothing tags, screws (in doors, cabinets, etc.), loose threads, crumbs on the ground.
- Long attention span: once stacked cards for an hour straight (11 mos). Routinely gets engaged in an activity and will persist for 20-30 mins or sometimes more.
- Loves books, has favorites. Can point to named characters, animals, objects when asked.
- Has favorite tv shows and movies. I don�t like him to watch too much tv, but one lazy day I was curious to see how long he would sit and watch his favorite movie. We made it 45 minutes�he sat in one spot and actively watched the movie the whole time. We only stopped because I decided it was enough.
- He knows the choreography to the dance numbers in his favorite movie. He does his baby version of the moves even when I play the soundtrack without the video.
- Doesn�t talk much, but knows some sign language. Weird thing, though, he tries to sing songs from his favorite movie�knows the cue for the one note/syllable he is able to sing.
