new phases and phrases

Mr. MC has been sleeping in our bed so much lately that one night (thanks to a reminder about this technique from our pediatrician), I decided at 1AM when he came to crawl into bed, to give him a choice between his sleeping bag on the floor beside our bed or being tucked back into his bed.  Since then he's been sleeping on our floor almost every night for a good portion of the night.  People tell me that it won't last forever.  He won't be sleeping on our floor when he's a teenager.  It doesn't bother me and Cary and I are getting much better sleep every since we're not sharing a queen-sized bed with both a dog and a 4 year-old.  I do really love snuggling him - he's such a good snuggler when he's asleep - not a squirmer like Noah, surprisingly, but I have been getting better sleep since moving him to the floor.
Likewise, I'm getting tough on the Little One (LO).  He had been doing such a good job of sleeping through the night, but then the morning nurse kept sneaking early and early from 5-something to 4 or even 3.  We're going backwards in more than one way.  He's 18 months and I would have thought he would be weaned, not nursing in the middle of the night.  So this week I'm getting tough and refusing to nurse him until it's light out.  It's working! Of course seasonally, it's going to get lighter earlier and earlier each morning for awhile, so I better wean him soon so I'm not getting up at 5AM anyway here in a couple of months.

Like his older brother, The LO doesn't have but a few words at 18 months.  "Mom" (which he screams with the tone and attitude of an exasperated  8-year-old, wonder where he got that?), "meh" (which means   "more"), and "da" which refers to every other animate and inanimate thing in life.  Not that he can't make sounds.  He "talks" constantly and loudly.  He loves to imitate any sounds that his brothers make, as long as they aren't real words.  But siren noises, car sounds, and any silly nonsense sounds his brothers make, he copies.  And as of this week he has a version of "woof woof."  It sounds more like a train whistles' "woo-woo" than a dog, but he makes that sound when he hears Murphy bark.