Any thoughts anyone? UPDATED!

Thankyou all for the wonderful responses! Its helped so much to gain these different perspectives. I always knew Olivia was 'beyond her years' but I guess I never considered that it would (obviously) affect the way she see's the world and how she functions in it. One analogy that I just read is standing out to me, that is: a child who is bright looks at the world through a microscope, a gifted child is looking through an electron microscope. wow so true. I went on to another website that provided this 'short list' and Olivia absolutly meets each and everyone of these examples: From the U.S. Office of Gifted and Talented: Short list of typical gifted preschooler (ages 2-5) characteristics: *Uses advanced vocabulary for age. *Uses spontaneous verbal elaboration with new experiences. *Has the ability to make interesting or unusual shapes or patterns through various *media: blocks, playdough, crayons. *Ability to assemble puzzles designed for older children. *Sense of humor used in general conversation. *Understanding of abstract concepts such as death and time. *Mastery of new skills with little repetition. *Demonstration of advanced physical skills. *Demonstration of advanced reasoning skills through explanation of occurrences. Comparison of Bright vs Gifted Bright Child *Knows the answers. *Interested. *Pays attention. *Works hard. *Answers questions. *Enjoys same-age peers. *Good at memorization. *Learns easily. *Listens well. *Self-satisfied. Gifted Child *Asks the questions. *Extremely curious. *Gets involved physically and mentally. *Plays around, still gets good test scores. *Questions the answers. *Prefers adults or older children. *Good at guessing. *Bored. Already knew the answers. *Shows strong feelings and opinions. *Highly critical of self (perfectionistic). An example of her attention span and physical participation: I am changing Rae's dressings both girls want to watch...2-3minutes in Maggie climbs down to watch a cartoon Olivia begins anticipating my moves and starts handing me Qtips, asking questions and when Rae begins to cry out Olivia rubs Rae's head and tells her she will be ok. A reactionary response from Rae(hitting my hand away from her tummy as im about to start packing)and Olivia without even thinking about it grabs rae's hand and holds it firmly. I guess part of me feels like, OK so shouldnt knowing and acknowledging these things make me feel better???? So why do I feel like crying? Sometimes lately with all of this stress I am so mean to Olivia, its not fair. Ive said things like: why cant you just be NORMAL?!??! Why wont you JUST GO PLAY with the other KIDS, WHY WONT YOU JUST GO AWAY. Its not fair to her, I need to read more, I need to reach out..I NEED to get her in preschool a few days per week so I can get a BREAK! *********************************************************** Here is a copy of an email I sent a friend last night...I typed it up in a hurry with two toddlers underfoot so its not the most organized of thoughts...LMK what you think? Olivia is doing great, shes slept all night in her own bed for the past 4nights *touch wood* she is still nursing before bed(for about 15seconds on each side) and then again for about 30-45minutes in the morning. I try to avoid nursing her at all during the day but sometimes she just NEEDS it. We are beginning to entertain the idea that Olivia might have some sort of spectrum issues....some things scream asperger's, others highly sensitive child. Mostly she is just WAY too smart for her own age, EXTREMELY sensitive to everything: lights-too bright too dark, smells(she cant use public bathrooms without gagging to the point of vomiting), sounds, heat-cold, if her sock is slightly twisted or a thread is hanging off her sleeve. She is such a con artist in ways that no children (that I know) her age would even think of...such as: I am in the other room doing Raechelles wound packing and Donna(Rae's partner is looking after her, Olivia wants me but is told no she has to wait. She screams and throws a HUGE hysterical fit, when she realizes this is getting her nowhere the tears are turned off instantly and a new plan is formed. Aunt Donna I have to go pee. Donna takes her to the bathroom. Aunt Donna I can go potty all by myself you leave the room please? Donna: No I think I will stay right here. Olivia: hmmm I cant poop without a story, Aunt Donna can you go get me XYZ book? Donna: (falls for it)goes to get the book. The SECOND Donna is out of the bathroom Olivia JUMPS off the toilet with her pants around her ankles and RUNS like a greased monkey down the hall way and bursts into the room where I am at. (no she didn't go to the bathroom) OK so that doesn't seem to have anything to do with a spectrum issue, mostly I am relating that to the emotional reactions...hysterical to calm literally with a blink of an eye. She has developed some form of a tic, she stares off and blinks twice really hard then stares off then blinks again, for the past few days we have also noticed her clear her throat and then sniff twice then clear her throat and sniff over and over again, like last night the entire time I read her a bedtime story. While she does make eye contact she often stares off when shes talking to you. She is extremely rhythmic, to the point of being obsessive. When she wakes up she says over and over and over sun is up time to wake up, sun is up time to wake up. Then she wants to watch cartoons, then she wants cereal, then she wants to get dressed, certain shirts always go with certain pants, if a sleeve is bugging her we might go through 5or6shirts. IF she's eating or drinking and ANY liquid gets onto her clothes she HAS to change, she is completely intollerant of having wet clothes on. IF we are going to transition from playing blocks to eating lunch she needs like a 10minutes warning and we need to remind her like every 2minutes, in 8,6,4,2minutes we are going to make lunch. If we go somewhere we cant just put her in the car...if we start getting ourselves ready to leave the house is FLIPS out: Mommy look at me! Mommy talk to me! Mommy tell we what we are doing? Where are we going? Who will be there? how long will we be gone? will we buy something? What will we buy? and shes frantic about it. When we are driving to say Target and I make a left on a street Id normally turn right on(to say avoid traffic and take a back street) she KNOWS that's not the RIGHT way to get there and starts all over: Mommy where are we going? Mommy look at me! Mommy talk to me... why did you turn Left? Mommy to get to Target you turn Right. She is so INTENSE its never ending. Anyway I could sit and type about all of this for hrs...She is so smart and always has been, its just changing I don't know how to better explain it...like one other example give a toddler a basket full of colored rubber bands you'd expect them to toss them around the room put them on as a bracelet etc. Well she DOES do that stuff too but more often than not you'd find her with the basket of colored bands and shes sorting them out a blue pile, a red pile, a green pile. OR she'll get one of her longer tree blocks and put on an orange band-then a red-then a blue---then an orange-then a red-then a blue over and over, she is so focused and so deep in thought you have to touch her to get her attention. What doesn't add up to asperger's is her emotional connection, she is so empathetic and so in tuned with her feelings and those of the ppl around her. If she see's someone crying she will say: why you sad? I will make you happy, I will hold you, its OK to be sad...do you want to talk about it? I will help you? Tell me why you are sad? and if you tell her: I am sad because of XYZ she wont just say OK and move on she will sit and talk with you about it, ask you questions and tell you about how she too was sad when: her bird died, her papa died, when Mommy went away over night and she missed her etc etc. its NOT NORMAL she's TWO YEARS OLD. I am so overwhelmed taking care of her