I don't remember speculating on whether my kids would be gifted, or even really having much awareness of giftedness per se, although I must have had SOME exposure to the idea (I knew my husband had been in school gifted programs, for example).
Looking back, there were a few early signs that made an impression on DH and me, but "gifted" didn't occur to us until much later. For instance, at about 8-9 months old DS watched me open a newly installed baby gate, just once. He then crawled over and perfectly imitated the rather complex two-handed maneuver needed to open it (luckily, his little hands weren't strong enough to pull it off!). At 18 months, he would independently insert CDs of story/song books that we had, press play, go find the corresponding paper book, and turn the pages at appropriate times to follow along with the story. This was his favorite activity for a few months. We thought that was cute and smart but that was about it.
I first started to realize something more was going on when he was about 2.5 and developed the first of a series of obsessive interests (musical instruments and orchestras). His extreme need to learn, along with his ability to concentrate for extended periods, quickly assimilate and remember massive amounts of new information, and apply it in new contexts then became very apparent. Also around that time I found the PBS child development tracker and realized that he looked more like an "average" 5 year old than a 2 year old by their descriptions. It was then that I started to research giftedness.
