Me, too. My first hubby gave me all kinds of a grief about speaking in normal sentences to our boys, saying "They can't understand that." i asked him how he supposed children learned language, and please tell me at what magical age will they wake up understanding and speaking if no-one has talked to them except in 'baby talk' ("Who's my wittle sweetums?") ? That got him to back off.
There's nothing wrong with using terms of endearment or telling your kids why and how much you love them, but doing it in normal language is better for their language skills. Tho it can have unintended consequences: My daughter, having her older brothers as well as me talking to her in normal language, had quite an advanced vocabulary by time she entered Kindergarten. She also had a speech impediment--imagine my surprise when the school's speech therapist explained that it was because certain words were so far beyond the norm for her age level that her tongue and mouth had yet developed the dexterity to say them 'properly'. She could say them well enough to be understood and the therapist was impressed that she actually understood the meaning of the words she was using.