This weekend, we celebrated August’s THIRD birthday. No real theme; just bright colors!

August’s godmother brought baby Jude over. Jude seems to be fond of me, so I get to know what it feels like to snuggle a little baby (August never wanted to cuddle when he was little. He does now though.).

August just likes bossing Jude around. I LOVE this picture.

We opened presents from family friends. First reading the cards…

Then watching August open presents by saying “Open it.” Once unwrapped, he said “Oh my goodness!” every single time. So cute!

Then we sang “Happy Birthday” and blew out candles on what seems to be a very simple cake, but…

Look at the INSIDE!!! A RAINBOW CAKE! I saw it online, and sent the link to my mom. It was one of her little projects while she was in town for August’s birthday. Didn’t it turn out amazing?!

Surrounded by loot. I love August’s pose in this pic!

Sarah is one of my best friends, and she’s also August’s godmother. She and her husband have been my rocks during this adjustment year. I love them dearly, but not as much as I love baby Jude!!

I love these tall skinny palm trees that are everywhere in LA. This palm grove was around Echo Lake.

Andrew took me downtown, not far from where he celebrated his marriage, to Grand Central Market. It’s a collection of grocery-type vendors (see Andrew in the foreground? He’s pointing at a hog’s head at a butcher) and small, ethnic food vendors, including a Pupuseria (explanation below).

Latino spices. Mostly chiles.

I don’t *think* the guy in the background meant to be caught in our photo.

Andrew had heard about a good pupuseria, so we checked it out. A pupusa is sort of a sandwich from El Salvador. The “bread” is a fresh, thick, chewy tortilla and it’s filled any variety of yummy things. We got a cheese one. Our pupusa=YUMMM. Very much like an arepa.

Over my Spring Break, I went to sunny California (August spent the week with his dad). First stop: San Francisco. I stayed with the lovely, Alanna, and her boyfriend in the SoMa neighborhood. It was so great to see her even though it was only a couple days. She is one of my best good friends.

We met up with some of Alanna’s friends for dinner at Delfina’s and took the MUNI (subway). The stop was “Van Ness.” You can barely see that I’m pointing to the Van Ness sign and not just making a ridiculous face.

While Alanna was at work one day, I spent a couple hours at the Ferry Building. I want to be buried there when I die.

Since I wasn’t able to enjoy Thanksgiving last year, I was very thankful to spend Thanksgiving with family down south. Lots of great food from Mom, fun stories with Aunt Carla and Dad and snuggles from August. It was a whirlwind trip, but oh so lovely.

We had a small celebration in the courtyard of my new building with a small group of family and friends. Since red is August’s favorite color (He told me. I know.), I used some of the same balloons he had at his first birthday party. I covered the table with black and white stripe fabric from Ikea since the downtown, hipster types love a black and white striped outfit (I’m going to turn the fabric into some pillows for my living room soon!). Then I threw in a little chartreuse in there with the drinking straws, Granny Smith apples holding the balloons down (apples…you know…to go with the Big Apple theme) and lemonade, ’cause you know I love that red/chartreuse color combo.