Our son was alert from birth also. The nurse in the hospital commented on it, but it meant nothing to me at the time. We also have photos and videos of him holding his head up and looking around when other babies are just lying there.
As for the books, I read to him from the day we got him home and I am shocked to look back at photos and videos and see his interest in those first books. He wiggled and stared at the books, but again it did not mean much to me at the time. I remember being embarrassed when the pediatrician asked what his favorite toys were and I told her "books." He also flipped the books to the correct side to "read" them correctly left to right and front to back. I kept experimenting with him by giving him random books the wrong way and he always set them correctly.
He barely napped even as an infant, preferring to look around...in fact he got my husband to carry him around the house instead of napping. He was non-verbal, but refused to be propped, laid down in a crib, etc...he "relaxed" by those walks around the house instead of true naps. At soon after a year, he threw his pillow on the floor and jumped out of the crib onto the pillow...and that was the end of the crib and any further attempt at a formal nap.
I have so many more alert baby stories, but I have to repeat that I didn't think anything of it at the time. We were one of the categories of parents that were "shocked" at the gifted id. I am Ivy League educated with a doctorate, so I expected my son to be bright, but I was 39 when he was born and didn't know baby behavior so everything he did was normal to us. Really, I have to thank Ruf for her list: after I read it, I exclaimed to DH, "Did you know it wasn't typical for DS to do this, this, this, and this???" We were/are both comparatively clueless parents ha ha ha. Nan
Last edited by NanRos; 07/26/10 06:23 PM. Reason: paragraph spaces
