Well, I finally made it back into the lab this week. Not for bench work, but to visit the boss and labmates, talk to a few people about when I'll be back to doing lab work, and pick up some papers for writing a review I've been putting off for months now. The Monkey came with me, of course, and everyone cooed at him. (I know I should learn how to say thank you when people tell me how cute he is, but I can't help but say "I know". What can I say, I'm a proud mama!)

It was a short visit, and I couldn't spend more than a few seconds in the actual lab since I had the Monkey with me. I had also looked forward to some lab talk with my science peeps, but, maybe expectedly, it all ended up being baby talk. It was nice to have face-to-face conversations, even if they were dominated by diapers, feedings, naps, and other baby-related stuff. I'm slowly accepting that these are the center of my life, for now at least. I've tried working on science these past couple of weeks, but I can't seem to get much work done in the hour-long snippets that the Monkey and household chores allow. Maybe it's for the best, but I can't help but feel quite a bit of guilt about it all. Even this blog has been taken over by baby talk, and my post frequency has slowed down a bit. With the recent grumblings regarding dead weight around here and the exodus of some of my favorite LS bloggers, I'm now starting to worry that my new focus is affecting how my blog is perceived.

I'd like to say that I'll be back to my old blogging self soon, but I just can't promise something like that. My life is inexorably linked to this little guy now, as will be my blogging. I got into this gig to provide stress relief and learn how to balance my work and personal life. This means I've written about whatever was demanding the majority of my energy, time, and thoughts - whether it was grants, job searches, postdoc doom-and-gloom, conception problems, or marriage. These days it's the Monkey, and the quest to reclaim my old lab-jockeying, job-searching, grant-writing, tenure-track-searching self.

It's very likely that this is an over-reaction by a hyper-sensitive and hormonal new mom feeling guilty about everything. As such, I'll leave a decision on this matter to my readers, fellow bloggers, and our dear Overlord. Despite some of the issues that have arisen over here in the past few months, I love blogging on LabSpaces, and I hope to keep my fairly new home permanent. If change is needed, however, I'll certainly make my way back to Blogger with no hard feelings.