Sometimes it's difficult to tell

My son has been rather difficult with his sleeping habits.  The last couple of nights he has woken up and been awake for a couple of hours.  You can imagine how fun that is at 12:30am when you barely get back to bed by 2am.  A week or so ago my husband and I were trying to figure out how to help our son understand staying in bed at bedtime. That even if he's not quite asleep yet, he needs to stay in bed and relax.  Through some advice that we received, which in hindsight I just feel dumb even asking, we realized because it had escaped our thought process a little, that our son is still a "baby".  My kids are so big for their age, I do catch myself sometimes forgetting that my daughter isn't even 4 yet.  She is so tall and very intelligent, that I catch myself thinking she knows better, when she is still learning.  Well DUH!!!  I have ended up doing the same thing with my son.  He is HUGE for his little age.  He won't even be 2 for another couple of months!  It also doesn't help that his big self figured out how to climb out of his crib at 14 months old, so we put him on a two mattress set on the floor.  He is physically developed but not mentally at the same level yet.  I am not saying my kid is not smart, but as I think it will be like this for the rest of his life, his body is going to develop faster than his mind matures.  So, of course my son wants Mommy to snuggle with him until he falls asleep, even if Mommy is dead tired herself, he is my baby.  I feel bad for having to be reminded by someone else that my son is still a baby.  I guess it's just going to be one of the unique challenges I face with my children.  They are so precious to me, I can't dream of being without them.  I hope I don't mess up too badly with them, a parent's worst fear.  I love my kids and I know that our new baby will feel all that love from his/ her parents and  big brother and sister.