good morning, mama!

this is how i've been greeted for the past couple of weeks when ezra awakes in the morning or from a nap. please note the swaddle wrapped around his lower half! after waking up, ezra would pull himself up and would hop about the crib (also note the gorgeous woodwork - thanks to jen's daddi-o!) as if in a potato sack, only in his swaddle, or "snugglie" as his nana calls it (especially when rummaging for it frantically in the dark).

NOW: the big news! we have been totally swaddle free for almost a week now! yep, the ol' boy decided to kick the habit himself - only at 8 1/2 mos (lol)! eric and i figured it was coming soon because lately, whenever we swaddled him, as soon as we got him in, he would wiggle his arms totally out within minutes, sleeping arms spread wide open. we still needed the swaddle to get him down, but not anymore! we are so relieved because we were really dreading the day he would outgrow it (since he was in the largest size as it is). christy, one of my girlfriends here in town, also swaddles her little boy who is 7 weeks younger than ezra. we frequently would jokingly wonder if we would be swaddling our boys on their way to college! :)

as you can see, ezra is also entirely fascinated by his mobile.

he thinks it is just too fun that he can reach the stuffed toys all on his own now!

when he was littler, i would pick him up to touch the toys while they danced around his head, and he would kick his feet and wave his arms and would chortle and laugh because he was so excited. so he is just delighted that he can do that all on his own now; he even can yank them out and eat them! :) when i went to get him up from a nap recently, he had ripped off all but 1 of the dangling toys - talk about hard core!