Back in action after a long, long absence

OK so my mom reminded me that even though I'm busy with important duties like kindergarten and being a big brother, I have to remember to blog.  And it's been well over six months, so rather than updating on everything that's happened since that adorable post from Halloween, I'm going to hit just a few highlights like….

My little brother Drew learning to ride a bike -- his first solo ride was May 3rd!  He asked my dad to take off his training wheels, and off he went!

And then just a week later he was a pro!

And my little brother Jared learning to walk -- in early March, when he was just shy of 11 months old!  He's growing so fast.

I threw in that last part because it was so cute watching him eat his first cupcake on his first birthday down in Los Angeles!!

Also, Jared took his first bike ride on April 18th, just after he turned one, and he loved it!

And I'm playing real baseball --- well, I don't have Tim Lincecum pitching to me, it's my coaches, but it's a lot more real than t-ball last year.  I'm on the A's this year, with some of my neighborhood friends!

And what else to report?  Since October, we've gone to Cabo San Lucas for Christmas break with my dad's family and Austin Texas for New Years with my mom's family.  And we went down to Los Angeles for a few days around Passover and went to DisneyLand for the first time ever!  We all loved that trip.  We have so many pictures from it, it's hard to know where to begin!  So I won't bother yet.

More pictures to come….

Love,
Spencer

happy tiger halloween!

It's a jungle out there --- and we boys are the boys to tame it!

First day of kindergarten!!

I am so ready, Freddie. Crazy little thing called school. 

Jared Lucas Weinberg! April 11th!

My new baby brother!  Here are a couple of pictures, hot off the presses....

8lb, 1.5oz --- half an ounce heavier than me...and 22 inches!  He's huge!  Check out the second picture, doesn't that red nose look like he was drinking a little bit of bourbon through that umbilical cord?  Mom, what were you up to?

I'm so happy to be a DOUBLE big brother.

Almost as important, I'll leave you with this picture, which captures my focus for the last month or so...

Yes, that's right --- I'm a t-ball player, and a New York T-Ball Yankee!

Love,
Spencer

happy birthday to me! and happy new year to all

It's official --- I'm 5 years old!  And thanks to GoDaddy, I now own my name's URL for yet another 5 years.  A big thanks to that lady who is the face of GoDaddy who wears tight outfits but never wins car races.  

So I'll update you on a couple of things.  First, over the new year we went to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico with my Aunt Belinda and Uncle Marc.  Unlike the rest of Mexico, we saw little drug violence there.  Other than that one time we saw two old people arguing over the last bottle of PeptoBismol on the shelf. 

Here are a few pictures of the trip:

Beautiful sunset on the beach!

Go Drew!  Looking cool in those shades!

A bit of snorkeling with Mommy and Daddy.  Man that water was cold!

Had to get some baseball practice in.  Guess who bought these shirts for us?

Drew and Daddy laughed all week!

Daddy playing defense while we played in the ocean.  Crazy undertow.  I don't think he liked it too much...

And Aunt Belinda joined in playing defense with Drew!

There I am getting sucked in by the undertow. Thank goodness for Daddy's legs!

Uncle Marc was so much fun on the beach!  Here he is drenching us after he helped us dig a big hole for us to play in.

Cutie petootie in the pool

Aunt Belinda, you're wet!!

I slid over and over again on this whale slide.

Splash!  In the pool!

Drew tried it too. He didn't like it as much :(

We had such an amazing time!

Drew started to play soccer this month -- here he is at his first ever soccer class!!  He was awesome.

OK, what else.  My birthday was a week or so ago, and I had an amazing party with my friend Ari, whose birthday is two days before mine.  Bowling party!  What goes with a bowling party?  Bowling cupcakes!

My cake at home with Mommy, Daddy and Drew

Me and Ari, birthday boys.

Drew had an awesome time bowling!  Even though he could barely lift the ball....

Launching the ball....and.....

Yum.

Strike!!!  No joke!

With Grandma and Pop-Pop after the party.

Oh, and did you know that Drew and I are moving in together?  We got bunk beds!  A few nights ago, Drew had his first night sleeping in his new big boy bed, and he did great.  And I love being up above him on the high bed.  So fun!

Love,
Spencer

Slumber party!

My brother sleeping in a big boy bed for the first time...on my trundle bed!!!

and one cute video of my brother....

Happy kid, eh?

re-emergence

I cannot believe that it's now been more than 6 months since I gave an update to my blog-reading fans -- who, at this point, understandably, consist of a bunch of Google servers doing keyword searches.  But let's see if I can at least post a few pictures that will be so unbelievably cute that the servers will notify Sergey Brin himself and Sergey will send out a google-wide email telling the troops to check out that cute 4 year old who can write with just a few grammatical mis-steps.

So what's gone on in my life since the last update.  Let me very briefly summarize, and then I'll post a few pictures to get you re-acquainted with my ultra-cuteness and the equally ultra-cuteness of my little brother:

- I finished my first year at my new school and graduated to the last pre-school class I'll ever attend, assuming they don't fail me for poor play-dough skills.  Now I'm an "Etzim" and loving it!
- My brother turned 2 years old -- he's now rapidly approaching 2 1/2 -- getting roughly a day closer each day.  Duh.
- I went to camp this summer across the street, and my brother went to the same camp!  We walked there together a couple of days a week (awwwww picture below).
- My family went to Yosemite National Park and we hiked all over the place -- I even went up 500 steps to the top of Vernal Falls, all by myself.
-  My brother started school, with the same teachers I had last year -- what a coincidence!
-  I started playing organized t-ball, and I LOVE IT.
-  I went on my first fishing trip with my dad and my friend Ashton and his dad, and it was so much fun!  Especially the part when we stopped fishing at ate sandwiches.
-  I've been learning to read, doing tons of math problems, learning to write, and generally representing everything that's wrong with type A Marin County parents.  No I'm kidding, I actually really like challenging myself, so it's really me forcing my parents to show me.  I'll bet by the time I'm done with high school, I'll be able to both read AND write.
-  We said goodbye to Elin, who went back to Sweden after a year with us where she truly became part of my family, and said hello to Malin (no relation), who is also from Sweden. We like Malin too!

Here are some quick photos to get you caught up....

OK, so you're almost caught up...I'm going to add some videos soon too!

Don't forget to vote -- early and often.

Love,
Spencer

I'm dedicating this one to my favorite 3rd party candidate -- my brother

Drew is a cutie petutie. Sorry if that's spelled wrong. I've been looking back at the last 12 months of blog posts, and I've come to realize that Drew has gotten shafted. I was so, so active blogging in the first 18 months after my birth -- my most creative and productive phase to date -- so I have a great record of my activities, but Drew is suffering from the second baby syndrome where there's a lot less proof of his existence. So, I present to you, some recent pictures of my incredible adorable brother, who I love to knock over and urge to do bad things like drop food on the floor and stand on tables.

I feel the need to admit that for his first 6 months I thought he kind of looked like a partially re-inflated California Raisin. But he keeps getting cuter each month.


Separately, we just returned from a fantastic vacation to Mexico, to a town called Mazatlan, which is somewhere between Panama and Wyoming. According to my parents, it was the least productive vacation they'd ever taken -- no major treks to centuries-old ruins, no major shopping excursions, no boatrides to far-off islands -- just beach, pool and eat. Beach, pool, eat. I thought it was glorious. I think my parents did too.


Just like in our country, Mexico is going through its own election season right now, and it seems like every single candidate has signs and billboards up that say, in Spanish, "yes we can." I wonder where they got that from. Given recent history, maybe they should change it to "Yes we can, but only if you also elect a legislative body that agrees with me." That's not very catchy though.

On the way down to Mazatlan, we stopped in Los Angeles for Passover and I saw may cousins, aunt and uncle and grandparents. We did lots of stuff during the 36 hours we were there, but my favorite was traintown!

Here's a picture of me with Sam, Ryan and Uncle Jeff in a very cool locomotive there.

One morning my big cousin Sam crawled into the pack 'n play with Drew. He used to do that with me! I was jealous.

Then we were off to the airport -- I had my awesome tiger carry-on that I pulled around the airports and always got these looks where middle aged women paused and said "awwwww." I need to remember that if I ever need a cougar, I'll bring my tiger.

Like I said, we spent a lot of time on the beach, playing in the sand and in the water, and especially collecting seashells. Every time I picked one up, I showed it to everyone!

And one of the last nights there, I went to a kids party and got to whack the Pinata -- I didn't break it, but I definitely scared it.


All in all, it was a wonderful vacation!

Love,
Spencer