Eli and I have been reading Else Holmelund Minarik’s A Kiss for Little Bear quite a bit lately; also, for the most part unrelated, we have been talking about ways to solve conflicts. Hence the following dialogue:

Me: Eli, can I have a kiss?
Eli: No.
Me: No? Why not?
Eli: Let’s talk about it.
Me: OK, let’s talk about what’s nice and not nice about giving kisses. What’s nice?
Eli: It’s sweet.
Me: Yeah, and it make a person feel loved.
Eli: And it’s bee-tiful.
Me: Yes, and …
Eli: And it’s happy! And houses!
Me (momentarily stymied by that one, so moving on): So what’s not nice about giving a kiss?
Eli: I don’t know! Here a kiss!

On a day when I’ve been feeling relieved to be finally solidly, unambivalently, and enthusiastically behind a presidential candidate, this made me laugh:

http://www2.eatdrinkordie.com/public/flash/fodplayer.swf

First, check out Mama, PhD contributor Rebecca Steinitz’s article titled “The Rest of Us:”

Summer vacation looms large among the specters that haunt the 2 a.m. anxiety fests of the working mother. While corporate titans turn to their nannies, and stay-at-home moms schedule swimming-lesson car pools, the rest of us lie awake, trying to figure it out.

Then, read Kristen Green’s terrific article, The write time, which focuses specifically on issues facing women working toward their doctorates who want to have children, too:

Terra Barnes is a 29-year-old neuroscientist working toward her doctorate at the Graybiel Laboratory at MIT, one of the most prestigious in the country. She’s also a smitten mother of 9-month-old Brayden.

Changing diapers and performing brain surgeries don’t exactly go together, but Barnes felt she didn’t have a choice. She wanted to have a baby, and she needed to finish her dissertation.

She’s still figuring out how to make it work. . . .

And of course, for more stories about how women in academia are figuring out how to make it all work, check out Mama, PhD.