The Bernardo Family: Wiggle worm & busting out of the swaddle

In the last couple of weeks, Frank has turned into an absolute wiggle worm! He is constantly moving around, kicking his legs, rolling around, and batting and grabbing for things. He also still puts everything in his mouth, including his thumb, hands, toys, blankets, and anything else he can get in there! I started putting him in his exersaucer last week, and he is loving it more and more each day. He is getting stronger and learning how to spin around and figure out all of the little toys and gadgets. It is so cute to watch him in there! He is also going crazy on his activity mat, which he still loves. He can play around on that mat for hours without ever fussing. He now rolls onto his side all the time and looks like he is so close to rolling over from his back to his tummy. He still rolls from his tummy to his back intermittently, but he does not do it all the time, and I don't think he quite understands what he is doing yet. He also tries to crawl when he is on his stomach. He will grab the edge of the blanket or activity mat and can move himself up and off the edge of the mat. He obviously is not strong enough to actually crawl yet, but you can tell that he can't wait to really be on the move!

Frank has also continued to move around a ton at night, so I decided to remove his bumper pads from his crib. He will literally turn around 360 degrees multiple times throughout the night, and I never know what position I will find him in when I go to wake him up in the morning. He also started busting out of the swaddle at night, and he continued to do so every single night last week. I decided last night to keep one of his arms out of the swaddle, and it seemed to work! He woke up a couple of times crying, but he would suck on his fingers and then fall back asleep. Tonight I put him down with both of his hands out of the swaddle, so we will see how it goes. Hopefully we can transition out of the swaddle and into a sleepsack by this weekend. It makes me feel better to know that his hands are free in case he starts rolling onto his tummy at night.

Frank is at such a fun stage right now, where he talks, smiles, and laughs a lot and rarely fusses. He is such a happy baby, and I am so thankful for that! Even the ladies at his daycare have commented on how happy he is, and that makes me one happy mama! Even though I miss him a lot during the day when I am at work, I am so grateful to get to spend special time with him in the mornings and afternoons. My three favorite times of the day are first thing in the morning when I wake him up and he always has a huge smile on his face when he hears my voice; when I pick him up from day care and put him in his car seat and he talks to me about his day; and when we dance together to Mozart's Canon in D every night before I put him to sleep. Those precious moments make my heart melt.

Here are a few pictures of my little man from the last week:

loving the exersaucer