The Williams Family: 16 months, and about to be a big brother!

We are down to the final days before baby number two arrives (won't be later than Nov.14th!) and Caleb becomes a big brother within just days of turning 16 months old. He is changing and learning new things every day, which is so fun to watch happening. Here is what's new this month:

Baby signs - every time he is in his hi-chair and sees my computer open, he signals and makes noises loudly to tell me he wants to watch the baby signing videos. He hasn't repeated many of them back to us, but he loves to watch them, and I suppose it can't hurt for all those signs to just be stored away in his mind for later. He regularly uses the signs for 'more' (to mean more and please), and 'all done' (to mean all done, no more, or that someone or something is gone), 'milk' when he is tired and wants his bottle before a nap, and he points to his mouth when he wants to eat. His latest addition is the sign for 'gorilla', which is pounding on his chest and making a gorilla sound.
Caleb has also begun making sounds for different animals when we look at them in books: very good at 'cow', and also does duck, dog, and sometimes monkey. They aren't very clear and may not be recognizable sounds to others, but we can tell the difference now through practice :)
Caleb LOVES playing 'ba' outside, which can refer to either the (plastic wiffle) bat or the ball. Jimmy has noticed that Caleb naturally bats left-handed and is looking forward to developing him into a switch hitter.
Figured out how to walk backwards (without falling) today
Had a case of Roseola recently... I think it was his first real fever (you can tell he hasn't been in day care yet), but after a few very fussy days and long nights of waking, he was back to his usual happy self running around outside.
Has a new big boy room to play in. If only he understood all the hard work put into it for him...!
New foods he likes: kiwi, grapefruit, peanut butter, red pears, swedish meatballs
Loves working in the yard - shovels, brooms, dust pans, and didn't even bat an eye when he squished two snails between his fingers, ugh!
Caleb is having fun playing with his (temporary) nanny, Karla, who has all kinds of fun activities, toys, and ideas to help get out all that boy energy. (Mommy has been put on decreased activity for these last few weeks of the pregnancy by doctors orders, which includes 4 hours each day of laying down - not an easy task with a toddler running around!)
His first haircut! It was just a trim to take care of some of the random long pieces and keep it out of his eyes. Though Caleb didn't like the sound and feel of the scissors clipping near his ears, daddy was able to do a pretty good job!

Uncle David, Aunt Dana, and cousin Deacon (2 mo.)

If only our children could appreciate all the time and hard work we put into things for them... Caleb's big boy bed took nearly 4 hours to put together! Gotta love Ikea...

The theme of his room was originally 'Spain', but we had to broaden it to Spain & Travel, so these prints and photos represent both things about Spain and about our travels, with a little Dr. Seuss mixed in. More to come soon on the finishing details of his room...