In the few years I've been writing at ParentDish, I've linked to Rebecca Woolf's blog on numerous occasions. Rebecca, otherwise known as the dynamic voice behind the blog Girl's Gone Child, has an indescribable talent for putting very complex topics into simple, provocative words. She's been one of my favorite bloggers since 2004, when I first discovered this medium. So, I was excited but unsurprised to hear that Rebecca had landed a book deal, and delighted to learn that she would be embarking on a book tour that would stop in my own city. I marked the date on the calendar and placed a call in to the shy babysitter down the road.
On the night of Rebecca's pit stop in Vancouver, I received a call from a suddenly sickly babysitter. Though the book signing started at 7:30, smack in the middle of my son's bedtime, I looked at him and asked: "Wanna meet some pretty ladies at a book store?"
"Yes!" he cried, though the "s" was a "th", and then we were off.
He's been potty trained for several weeks, almost a month, and so I didn't think too much about the fact that he was wearing his hilarious old-man briefs and no diaper. I kept asking him on the way to the store: gotta go, Nolan? Tell me if you gotta go."
Although initially excited about our destination, a two-and-a-half year old's enthusiasm is a fickle thing, and by the time we got to the store, my son was manic and destructive with alternating glee, boredom, and a fierce determination to wet-willy an unsuspecting participant.
We had to leave before we got to hear Rebecca read. Nolan had an accident in the middle of the bookstore. Rebecca, adorned in chiffon and softness, presented us with some wet naps. And, cringing, I bought a few books and limped out of the bookstore. On the way home I sneaked glances at the book during red lights and when I got home, I put Nolan to bed and inhaled the whole book.
Even if I didn't really like Rebecca as a person and respect her immensely as a blogger, I would still have to say this: Rockabye is perhaps the best book on Mothering I've ever read. And it's certainly the best memoir. Alternating between streaming-eye touching and stomach-hurting funny, the book is one of the first honest books I've read about the bumpy journey from woman to Mother. I feel proud that Rebecca is one of the blogosphere's own, and the trip to meet her and try to support her reading was definitely worth the accident on the steps of the bookstore.
