This weekend was a confluence of celebrations as my son and I both celebrated our lunar calendar birthdays, which also coincided with my actual birthday this year. On Friday, I brought Westley to his first visit to an allergist to confirm his peanut allergy, then enjoyed cake and balloons from my clinic staff in the afternoon. We braved the crowds the next day to celebrate Chinese New Year with Melody’s cousin at Asian Pearl, making sure our baby gets properly indoctrinated into the habit of collecting red envelopes and ordering dim sum. On Sunday, I volunteered my birthday morning at the Paul Hom clinic before joining Melody for delicious soup dumplings at the aptly named Journey to the Dumpling in Elk Grove. The festivities were not over when I returned to lab on Monday, when I found out that I received the Genentech AMD Fellowship from the ARVO Foundation. I took my technician Eric out for Chengdu Style lunch to celebrate the grant and his acceptance to grad school. With Westley’s recent move to the toddler room at daycare and advancement to more solid foods, we were excited to share more of our meals together. His increased mobility, however, also necessitated new corner protectors for our furniture and baby gates at the top and bottom of our stairs. He has also attained the new skill of pointing with his finger, which has somewhat improved our ability to communicate with him. It’ll be interesting to see what else he can come up with next.