Turning 39 wasn’t really something I felt like celebrating, so I took up an offer for an advisory board in Phoenix just 2 days before my birthday. We spent Sunday at the Norcal Home & Landscape Expo to scout landscape designers, then dined on hearty HK cuisine to ease our cold symptoms. My lab made a bigger deal of my birthday when I got back with a beautiful red velvet cake, and my clinic staff extended the celebration further on Wednesday. The following weekend got swept away by a day-long faculty retreat that began with a cult-themed Escape Room experience, followed by grueling but unproductive discussions about education, research, and clinics at a country club. For Westley’s birthday, we delayed the celebration until Sunday for a dim sum party at Yue Huang, followed by unpacking of presents, whacking of balloons, eating of cake, assembly of Duplo pieces, and jumping on an inflatable trampoline that got him bouncing in and out like a ninja warrior. His new-found assertiveness led to some roughhousing at school, leaving him disfigured as he transitioned to the Beginner’s 2 class. For us, his growing energy also meant forgoing any hope for vegging out to watch the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, and instead filling our weekends with playground visits and outings to keep the little guy busy. Surprisingly, he handled his first dental cleaning with flying colors last week. And since he still maintains a 7pm bedtime, we were able to finish up Dishonored 2 and prepare for our next guilty gaming pleasure. With impending tariffs on clean energy, we are also beginning to invite solar salesmen to our house to torture us with their infomercial sales pitch. With my parents coming in just one week, we hope to maintain our sanity just a bit longer before reinforcements arrive.