Happy mom, happy baby

I was lying in the king-size Chicago hotel bed, rubbing Zoe's back so she could fall asleep easily, while she asked me about my work today. "What did you work with today?" she asked, because I had been at a committee meeting while she was with her dad. "Remember when daddy brought you into that big room with all of Mommy's friends? And the big screen?", I asked. She nodded. "I was working there all day, writing on my computer and saying things such as 'No, we cannot reject that paper!'", I continued. Zoe laughed and took that as enough of an answer. Three minutes later, she was fast asleep.

The train station in Mountain View that we are now very
familiar with

The past two days have been full of discussion with my international research colleagues, something that I enjoy tremendously. I have exchanged research ideas, updated knowledge on different areas and provided my (sometimes unpopular) opinion on other's research. I found that my own academic vocabulary, talking about my own research improved highly over those days and I was able to explain a project much more elaborately to a colleague earlier today. I miss having this in my everyday life, but meetings like this partly make up for it. For the rest of the afternoon today, a colleague who had a baby invited me and Zoe over to her house and we hung out, just playing and talking. I felt very lucky to be able to spend quality time with a colleague that I respect and admire for her research and ability to juggle child and career. We exchanged a lot of experiences and Zoe said the baby was so cute she just wanted to eat it.

As Zoe lay there asleep, all I could think of was how happy I was right now. I don't need anything else right now. Not at all.