To Swaddle or Not to Swaddle

Just wanted to check in and put up a few pictures of our little man! He is almost 3 months old and is officially out of 0-3 months clothes and on to 3-6 mos. clothes. To be honest, I have a hard time "retiring" clothes that he grows out of because I can remember when those same clothes were huge and baggy on him. But as Jon keeps reminding me, he is STILL little, so I can't get too sad. I just keep thinking the next thing I know I will be buying his first outfit for kindergarten. (Ok so I'm a bit dramatic, but you know what I mean.) Here is Caden at his friend Gavin's (my best friend from high school Brittany's son) first birthday party. It was a few Saturdays ago; yes the Saturday that was ridiculously hot, and we were out in Chino Hills, so we decided it was time for Caden's first official "swim". He had his board shirts and Hurley t shirt on and everything. :) I'm pretty sure he's ready for lap swimming now. Here is Caden with what we've fondly named his "Chew Pup". (At first we called it his Chew Dog, but my brother in laws nickname is Chewie, also referred to as Chew Dog, so we thought we'd avoid confusion later in life and rename it Chew Pup.) This little cuddly teething blanket has been Caden's new snuggling buddy as of this week. He likes to chew it, drool on it and I even let him snuggle with it when he sleeps. Though he is still getting used to controling what he can and can not grab with his little hands, Im pretty sure he loves it and grabs it constantly. Ok, so I put it next to him every chance I can.
To explain myself better, this week we decided to stop swaddling Caden when he sleeps because (as I knew before he was born and felt him in my stomach) this kid is a KICKER! He constantly kicks out of his swaddle and wakes himself up. So I made the decision, stopped swaddling....and suffered the consequences. When you think about it, it IS kind of mean--poor kid has been used to feeling safe, warm and secure everytime he slept...and then I ripped that all away from him, and wondered why he woke up every 2 hours for the first night. But its gotten better, and last night he was back to his "normal" sleeping pattern. So now we can go from there and work on him sleeping through the night. But all that to say, Caden is such a snuggler, hence Chew Pup. When I settle him down for bed, I have him snuggle with it and lay it next to him when he sleeps. I hope this can start to help be his "trigger" for sleep time since the swaddle is gone. As we speak, he is asleep, grasping it with both hands with his face cuddled close to it. I wanted to get a picture of it, but decided against it. (Yes, I am stupid enough to take away the swaddle but not enough to try flash photography on my newborn in his sleep.)
I couldn't get him to smile for me for this pic. I think he's still bitter about the swaddling thing...