No mourning here. Before I had DD, I always said that I didn't like babies because they're boring, they just sit and stare vacantly, and I wasn't interested in being around any kids until they start being fun, generally around 3-4. So when my own DD was selecting her own clothes at 3 mos, and pulling her first pranks, she let us know she was going to be anything but boring.
DW bemoans the fact that she barely got to enjoy DD being a baby at all, so her take would be different from mine.
Up until DD entered school, her advanced abilities resulted in a lot of positive attention. There was this one restaurant we ate at regularly where we got AMAZING service, because every waitress wanted to come by and see DD, so after they said hi and paid her a few compliments, we got our extra napkins and drink refills.
We did get into some minor conflicts with immediate family members, who didn't take kindly to the idea that they couldn't just pick her up when they wanted to ("She'll tell you if she wants to be picked up... you wouldn't like it if some strange giant yanked you up off the ground, please show her the samr respect.") or if we were disciplining her ("She's perfectly capable of understanding why she's on time-out, thanks."), but that was about the extend of it.
It only became a problem when DD enrolled in school, and that's just a problem with the school, not with her or being her parent. Now that she's 10, she knows how to blend in pretty well, so most people don't notice anything different about her... unless she warms up to a particular subject, or they're foolish enough to ask her what she's learning in school.
