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

Ready for takeoff...

I'm the pilot. Drew is my co-pilot. Drew's Hootie is on the throttle. Literally. I love southwest airlines, they're nice people.

ok, so this one is worth an update

So I'm biking home from the park this morning on my cool little dirt bike with training wheels, and I look over to my daddy and say "daddy, can you take off my training wheels and i'll ride my bike this afternoon?" my dad's eyes open wide and he trips over himself saying "definitely." ok, ok, so maybe i'm super-competitive and i saw my friend ashton this morning at the park with his new bike without training wheels --- which he rides like one of those pedal-less skut bikes, but he rides it well. so yes, it was a comment born of envy. but not more than 5 hours later, the ratchet set comes out and oua-la.....

sorry that you have to turn your computer sideways to see this right -- my dad and mom are still getting used to their iphones. old people are such technology babies!

i am such a rock star.

so is my brother. more on him later.



love,

Spencer

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