My baby brother Drew now running neck and neck with Romney

OK, maybe not, but it's certainly possible!

I am just loving the Repbulican primaries, I'm just so sad that I haven't had time to keep up with writing about them. Around this time 4 years ago I was writing clever yet barely intelligible commentary almost daily. Actually, to be honest, around this time 4 years ago I was doubling my size every two weeks inside of my mom's tummy, but the action has been so fast and furious lately that it feels like February or March in election time. Ah, I miss infant-hood sometimes! And now I'm a toddler and I feel like I don't have enough time in the day to do everything I want to do.

So why haven't I had much time lately? I've been out and about -- since the last time I wrote, I've been to Las Vegas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, in that order, for birthdays and holidays. It's tiring!

Let's take you back....

Early September -- Michelle "I've raised 27 kids including a fetus" Bachmann cedes control of the republican primary free-for-all to Rick "What was my nickname again?" Perry. And more importantly, my Grandma Lois turns 65, and all the grandkids surprise her on her doorstep! OK, so this was reported in the last update, but no doubt you forgot so I figured I'd remind you.

Mid-September -- Rick Perry has the first of many, many, many stumbles and Democrats breathe a sigh of relief that the good looking Texan who seemed to be a lock to beat Obama is, in fact, even less qualified than George Bush, and people actually care. And, more importantly, we welcome Elin to our family from Sweden! She's here for a year staying with us to take care of me and my brother, and we love her! She's teaching us lots of things about Sweden, and also she's been teaching me a few swedish words -- she tells me they mean "hello" and "goodbye" and such easy concepts, but I know secretly the words she teaches me are just the names of bookcase styels from Ikea. I need to check those catalogs. Here's a picture of us!











Late September -- Herman "Women go for this guy?" Cain takes over the lead from...umm... I forgot his name. But check out my mad baseball skills -- I'm catching the ball with my new glove!








While my baby bro and mom hang out and cheer me on!










Ah ah ah ah stayin' alive, stayin' alive!


September in California, why not go to the beach!











Oh, and September is PERFECT soccer weather for a kid like me!












But Drew doesn't quite get the rules...












Late October -- Jon Huntsman dresses up like Rick Santorum for the annual capitol hill halloween party, but still nobody recognizes him, or his costume. On the other side of the country, I kill the town with my homemade turtle costume and Drew dazzles in an Armani Giraffe print.
















Early November -- The 8th republican primary debate...or was it the 7th? 9th? Oh, who cares, they were all lame. I can assume that Rick Perry said something inane, that Herman Cain was unintelligible, and that Ron Paul was shorter than me. And my Uncle Harold turns 60, and the whole family descends on Vegas for a big bash. So much fun! I don't get to see my NYC cousins often enough, and they're a ton of fun. Even though they scare me because they're essentially triplets but spanning 8 years. That must have been some seriously bitchin' labor for my Aunt Annie.

Here's a picture of all the cousins and Aunts and Uncles....and of the Weinberg men, minus me and Drew. 4 Weinbergs -- sounds like the name of a boutique investment bank that should fire its marketing chief.
















Mid-November -- Mitt Romney breathes a sigh of relief when his wife reveals that she's the one woman in the world that Herman Cain didn't harrass. Then in a moment of HBS competitiveness, he wonders what's wrong with his wife. And my Grandma Joyce comes to visit for a few days! How about these pictures of two brothers having a grand old time!






You can assume that 5 minutes after these pictures were taking, one of us made the other cry.








Late November -- Newt "Not even remotely likable" Gingrich takes over from Cain. And it's time for Thanksgiving! We all piled into the new SUV and motored down the 5 (or "I-5" to you east coasters) to see my cousins again, and my Grandma and Pop-Pop. We played our annual game of street football, and my team lost to a team that had a strange looking Daddy-Drew totem pole.
























We also took a trip up to Santa Barbara to the zoo...and check out the tongue on this giraffe!




As I fed her lettuce, the giraffe admitted to me that Herman Cain had harrassed her late last year. Apparently he has a thing for huge tongues. Oh, and harrassing women.

Here's a great family picture from the zoo!






And of course the traditional turkey day dinner, which for me consisted of one bite of turkey followed by a ton of cranberry sauce. My brother however ate so much I don't know where it went.







Did I mention I got an ice cream cone the size of my head? Thanks cousin Sam! (note from my dad to cousin sam: there will be payback).










And my pop-pop tried to get me to ride a real bike! Maybe next time....




OK, so just a few more supercute pictures of me and my brother from the last couple of months. You have to check out the one of my brother in the chair giving his angry baby look! Priceless!











Love,
Spencer

Happy Labor Day

It's been an unseasonably and unreasonably cold summer here in the Bay Area. I agree with the loopy Republican presidential candidates who say that global warming is just a "theory", like the theory of evolution or the soccer play of Thierry Henri, who is, apparently, quite French. But really, I think it' just that it's so unbelievably hot in Sacramento that the fog this summer has been just plain insane. I blame Jerry Brown, mainly because he's old, but also because he's extremely old.

Because it's Labor Day today, I want to give a shout out to all the laborers out there. According to certain "intellectual historians," Labor Day was started in 1882 to celebrate the contributions of members of labor unions, who at the time were considered the underpaid, underappreciated underclass, who probably were made to wear underalls instead of overalls and underoos instead of overoos. But I'd like to dedicate this Labor Day to my mom, who reminded me recently that she was in labor for over 20 hours when I was born.

So this is a big update, since I haven't written anything in a while. Lots of pictures, but only one video -- taken today -- of me and my little brother, who last time I blogged was just turning a year old. Now he's almost 15 months old, he's walking all over the place non-stop, he's talking words and random sounds (mostly "da") without any sense of volume control, and I have to admit he's a ludicrously happy and cute kid. He absolutely LOVES slides.





OK, what else. This past weekend we were in Las Vegas, the home of the 120 degree playground, for my grandma's surprise birthday. We really surprised her, so much that she burst into tears when all 5 of her grandchildren showed up at her door. It was quite touching, an an afternoon special kind of way.



We had a great party where a bunch of my second cousins came, and I love hanging out with them! Here are my grandma and pop-pop at the party, looking grandparent goofy.


The only downside -- did I mention that the playgrounds in Las Vegas are like 120 degrees all the time? Have you ever burned your thighs on a plastic slide? Ouch!

Here I am with my big cousin Sam. He teaches me everything, which according to my parents is ok since he's 10, but once he hits 12 i'm not allowed to let him teach me anything. Not sure why.







And here's Drew with Sam, too, playing with Sam's hat. Don't worry, there will be pictures of my other cousins soon.





Drew apparently loves Pizza too.






And yogurt.






And lately he's loved hanging out in my tent (which I sleep in from time to time for reasons not known to my parents).






And he also loves hanging out in our playhouse.

OK, just try to tell me you didn't laugh when you looked at that picture. So adorable. If you didn't laugh or have some emotive response then go see a therapist fast. I do not recommend Michelle Bachmann's husband. He's a loon. They're both loons. I think they were extras in On Golden Pond.


Hey, wait a second. Is this Drew's blog or mine? How about some choice Spencer snaps! Like Spencer eating blackberry ice cream.





Or Spencer picking the first tomatoes from the tomato plant he planted! They're yellow tomatoes called snowberries and they're way yummy.





OK that's enough cuteness for now, I'll close with a quick pic of me and my brother.






But I want to make one last important note. As you may be aware, election season is just beginning. The Republican candidates -- mormon, Bush-ish, looney, Ron Paul, and all -- are already in full gear, and back when I was just beginning to blog I spent a lot of time commenting on what I saw from my perspective as an infant. But this time I'm a little kid -- not even a toddler anymore, a little kid. So I'll have much more to say. If I can make the time to actually blog once in a while. Fingers crossed, because I think it's going to be a fun one.

Love,
Spencer

can you believe it? my brother is 1 year old! oh, and the republicans are already debating.

Time to break out the old BBB PAC buttons. With the addition of Moby, this makes 2 members of BBB. Double the lobbying power, double the tantrums.

I'm so, so terribly excited to see people running for president again - especially utterly crazy people who I can make poop jokes about. I'm very into poop jokes right now. For example:
Daddy: Spencer, what's 2 plus 2
Me: 4
Daddy: Nice! Now what's 3 plus 3
Me: Poop.

I know - go ahead and call Conan, he needs this kind of material.

But to be realistic, it is a full 18 months until the election. And it's like 8 months until the first primary. So I'm going to have to pace myself in my commentary on how every time I see Ron Paul I think of Munch's "The Scream." And how every time I hear Michelle Bachmann's midwestern accent I pluck my nose hairs to reduce the pain. And how Tim Pawlenty is like a human pacifier - he very, very quickly gets me drowsy and off to dreamland. And how I can't believe that Rick Santorum is from near my dad's hometown. Makes me not want to visit.

So, I'll go back to posting some pictures.

I call this series of pictures "running with scissors...before and after." talk about haircuts!




















I call this picture "spencer tetris."







And I call this series "Cute Moby / JooJoo / Drew" - yes, he has about 6 or 7 nicknames at this point, including, of course, "Poop." He is a seriously cute brother. And I'm so proud that, despite my constant over-hugging, foot-pulling, head-bonking, food-stealing, nose-poking of him, he hasn't run off to join the circus....yet. But give him time. Or more to the point, give ME time!







Love, Spencer

my brother has teeth. i'm ready to be bitten.

I'm not sure where to begin. Things have been so busy with me - the life of a 3 year old is never easy, you know - that I've had zero time to update this blog, but so much has happened. Here's the quick summary, in executive, bullet-point format:

- I celebrated Passover with Grandma & Pop-pop
- I had a visit from my other Grandma
- I had a visit from my friend Adrian from Portland
- I kick butt at soccer - I'm almost done with my first set of soccer classes
- I'm learning the rules of baseball in preparation for my first day of t-ball, which is in -- wait, 2 years? are you kidding me? oh, well.
- My brother can almost walk - and he's amazing at pushing my old radio flyer cart
- My brother has teeth. This worries me to no end. I value my smooth, flawless skin.

I have so, so, so many pictures to upload, but I wanted to just show two quick videos. First is a ridiculous video of me, my dad and Pop-pop. These are some seriously old harmonicas we're playing - they belonged to my great-grandpa.



And second, I just wanted to give a quick tribute to my brother, who's trying so, so hard to learn how to walk. These are from the last couple of months. He's like days away!!

Spencer.

PS, I came home today and told my dad that we need to donate to NPR. It's official - I'm a San Francisco toddler, I already know we have to support public radio.

Love,

I's Married Now!

Channeling my inner Oprah Winfrey (Answer: The Color Purple). No, silly, I'm not actually married, but me and my parents and my little brother Drew just got back from Costa Rica where my Aunt Belinda got married! Congratulations to her and my now-Uncle Marc!





One recommendation for those of you who might be considering a beach wedding in Central America: check the tide charts before making your wedding schedule!



I've never seen such a nimble rabbi.



I, of course, had a marquee role in the wedding ceremony - that of Chief Ringbearing Officer.




And have you ever seen such an amazing sunset?






Other than the wedding, we had a great time in Costa Rica - even better than last year. Mainly because this time I had my little brother on the outside of Mommy instead of the insider of her. Here's a decent picture of our family on the beach.





We saw soooo many animals in Costa Rica. We saw hummingbirds...







We saw lots and lots of frogs, including this pair - how nice that one of them is giving a piggyback (froggyback?) ride to the other? Not sure why my parents were talking about ordering a pizza when they saw them though.








And we saw a lot of Agoutis. An Agouti is like a big rat, and they're all over the jungle.





I came up with an awesome joke about Agoutis.

How many shoes does an Agouti have?
Two.
Why two?
Because it's Agouti Two-Shoes!


We did a heck of a lot of hiking - daytime and nighttime. Well, by we of course I mean my mom and dad did a lot of hiking and Drew and I did a lot of sitting on their backs. Check me out on a hanging bridge over the Monteverde Cloud Forest canopy! Very cool view.









I was really sad that I missed a day of soccer practice while I was away, but a couple of times I headed out to el soccer pitch and kicked the old ball around. I think I'm actually a pretty good soccer player. Check out my leg form!








And my brother Drew was a lot of fun to be with. More to the point, he was a lot of fun to play with, without him actually knowing I was playing with him.







And he's a really, really happy and giggly brother.





And he loves the beach, just like I do! Here I am with my Mom and Drew...








So that's the quick and dirty on our vacation to CR. I loved it, but please, Mom and Dad, take me somewhere different next year! There ARE other places in the world, you know!






Love,
Spencer