DS is not advanced physically at all, but he is right on target on most physical milestones. DH and I both work full-time, and we are tired when we get home. But DS wants us to read him books and do flashcards with him. When we stop reading/doing flashcards to him and put him on his highchair, he cries and throws all his toys onto the ground. I know we sound like bad parents, but we can�t just sit with him all evening long. If we get lucky, sometimes he will play by himself. He likes to push his toys to the edge of the highchair, see how far he can push them before they drop onto the ground, and then stare at the toy which he just throws onto the ground. Rinse and repeat until he is out of toys. Then he cries again.
Being physically advanced is by no means necessary for being gifted, it's just one possible sign (the same with early reading, etc.). I know I was pretty on target with my milestones as a kid and ended up testing gifted in elementary school. The only things my parents noticed when I was young was that I never slept and I had an obsession with shape sorters at about 10 months.
How do you keep your child occupied/entertained?
Good question.. my MIL is with us for the summer so we basically rotate her between 3 people. :-) Her favorite toys right now are wooden building blocks (not really blocks,but various wooden shapes that are GREAT for doubling as teething toys) and her foam floor mat that has numbers on it (she likes to pull the numbers out). I'd also suggest lots of CDs and music. It does get annoying when you've heard veggie tales for the 6th time in one day, but DD loves it. I also play an instrument and she settles down almost immediately if I bring it out and play for her (although she spends most of the time trying to grab it from me). Also, we read to her quite a bit and she's a big fan of the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Goodnight Moon. Walks are always a good thing. She loves the park and will just sit and people watch, it's the only time she's quiet!
We always hoped to be simple parents that just gave their child a few toys. Then DD came along and, well, we realized a larger variety of toys was directly linked to our sanity.
