We only "knew" when we got the test results just before he turned 7. Like other posters, we had been impressed by how quickly he picked up concepts and how deeply he was into the "flavor of the day/month" (garbage trucks, dinosaurs, space aliens, myths, puzzles, etc.). He's quite verbally adept and was from a young age, but didn't take off with his reading until early K (our other child is doing exactly the same thing). Was doing multiplication and division at age 5. We chalked it up to an enriching environment (Montessori plus home resources). We are also from pretty "smart" families so some things that seem markers now didn't seem all that odd at the time.
Then we had a disastrous first grade year (think: no acceleration) and a dear teacher at the school took us aside and suggested that he might be highly gifted. Voila, PG.
Even now, we still wonder at times, because he can be so asynchronous...
As for sleep, we used the Baby Whisperer and later, Toddler Whisperer (Traci Hogg) approach. He really needs his sleep and once asleep, is hard to wake. However, getting him to sleep has been an on/off challenge over the years. After reading Tigerle's post, I realized I'm the same way as far as needing to calm my brain in order to fall asleep!
