"I'm polymerized tree sap and you’re an inorganic adhesive."

If anyone has ever watched The Big Bang Theory on CBS you would recognize that quote from the character Sheldon. My husband and I stumbled upon that show and have been hooked ever since because we are pretty sure our son is going to grow up to be a Sheldon! We really get some good laughs out of it because we see so many similarities between the two. I wonder who came up with this Sheldon character (if he is based on a real life person), and if they hang around a exceptionally gifted person much because they have hit the nail right on the head when it comes to characteristics!! Anyone else see their child in this guy?

We took our son to a specialist at the age of 3 because that was when we started really worrying about him. At the age of 2, he started really obsessing about numbers and letters but it was cute at first! He could say his alphabet in two languages before he was two as well as count to twenty in two languages. We had nothing to do with this, no encouragement whatsoever! He just wanted to practice, practice, practice all the time. We're talking nonstop - did I say all the time? Did I mention we were seeing numbers and letters in everyday objects like doorways, food, trees, the dog - it didn't matter and letter or number popped up everywhere. At 2 1/2 he figured out he could write his letters and numbers to and count backwards as well as forwards, O Joy! Next came the names of states and where they belonged on maps. Had all these memorized before we turned three.

At the third birthday, we asked him what he would like to do (like have a party, be with some friends.. you know, normal stuff). He told us he wanted to spend the night at a hotel. So, my husband and I took him away for the weekend to a hotel with a pool and thought he might also enjoy a zoo. We spent a few days trying to swim but those darned letters kept getting in the way of us swimming because they kept popping up all over the place and then at the zoo, I had a total nervous break-down! Here I was pointing at the very old and very cool looking orangutan with dredlocks in his fur (he had to be at least 70 years old), and my son points behind him and says "Look, look! I found the number 13!" That was it for me, I started to cry and cry and cry. The entire trip to the zoo was all about my son finding more and more numbers. You see, the zoo had signs by all the cages that allowed you to punch in a key on your cell phone to get more info about an exhibit if you wanted. The number on the sign was the key you would use on your cell phone to get that information. My son seemed to think that we were there to see numbers and not animals. I don't believe he noticed one animal the entire time we were there. And yes he is wearing necklaces he made and they have the English alphabet on them and Hebrew alphabet. He wore those day in and day out for I don't know how long!

This is how we ended up at a specialist at the age of 3. I just couldn't understand his obsessions anymore. Since we had now moved on from states to presidents and we were eagerly gobbling up the names of all the presidents and presidential facts and he was already planning for his 4th birthday to have Mt. Rushmore on his birthday cake. Calgon take me away!! All I can say is thank you G-d for our local university and their Psych Department. After a few phone calls to some friends and folks in the world of PhD's - I was pointed to an amazing woman at our local University and we brought our DS down for an appointment.

At this point, we knew he was smart but had all along just planned to put him in public school or maybe homeschool some if we really needed. I had placed him in a preschool co-op for a year with kids approximately one year older than him who were all planning to go to Kindergarten the following year. I was only sending him 2 days a week and he was not enjoying himself because he didn't fit in with the kids socially and academically he was bored. The teacher was wonderful and even agreed to bring the gifted educator from the public school in for a day to observe him. After they watched him for a few hours she called me the next day to tell me that we should either petition to place him in Kindergarten now (at 3 years old!!) or just find a private school for him because the CA public schools had nothing to offer us. Great advice, isn't it! We knew then we could not rely on CA to help educate our child.

Back to the therapist at the University, she was our first breath of fresh air in 3 1/2 years. We did some testing to rule out any type of neurological issues, psychological problems, learning disorders, mental health disorders etc.. After that it became an issue of what to do with a 3 year old that is never satisified! More next time....