Sitting here in the light of day... things do not seem as bad as they do in the wee hours of the morning. I woke up this morning with the knowledge that I'm doing fine, DD is fine, and she'll continue to be fine. LOL.

Thank you all for the advise.. once again I'm glad I found this board... you have calmed my worries.

I think perhaps I read too much. I recently purchased my first books of gifted children and some of what they said started freaking me out. Up until now I was sure just living normally would be appropriate. I think I'll put the books down.

What spurred this all on is that LIFE has gotten in the way of my plans for "preschool" and I haven't pursued it. Playing Candyland is as far as I've gotten. So, imagine my shock when I caught her reading a board book to her younger sister. Of course, I thought perhaps she had memorized it. I know she is capable of it. But, no. I showed her a book she had never seen before (one of those level 1 readers) and she read it to me. And here I thought she knew only a few sight words! I've since discovered she has somehow made that mental leap from putting CVC words together into reading larger words phonetically.

You would think I couldn't be surprised anymore.

I accept and am proud of her. The "freaking out" about her abilities is that

1- I worry too much.

and

2- Genetically I expected to have intelligent kids. My husband is technically a "rocket scientist" (haha) and has a genius IQ. I myself have always been "gifted" just not nearly as much as my DH. However, the level of her precociousness was just not expected.

And, yes, having a lot of experience with kids probably makes it worse.

I apologize if I sound scatter-brained. Because I have no one in my life that I can really discuss anything of this sort with.. what I type hasn't really gone through any filters yet.

I also have to admit that even while I was typing about this "exceptional" group I was thinking they seemed a little stuck up themselves and that such exclusive membership requirements would probably not be for me. Who do they think they are... Mensa? I think I just wanted to put feelers out there.

I wish, like most mothers do, for my kids to be happy and healthy. I've seen her rejected by other kids enough to hurt for her. Unfortunately, older kids want nothing to do with her because they think she's a baby... She only weighs 26 pounds and is 34 inches tall... so she looks much younger than she is.

This really exacerbates the situation of course.. with parents and other children.