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• Baby, I'm Coming Home (I Promise)

  Archer has long stopped ichatting with me. He refuses to speak to me on the phone. He's pissed and with good reason. I haven't seen Archer in over two weeks and it will be a few more days more before I come home. He's stopped calling for me at night and asking for me in the morning and going to the window and waiting for me after I tell him I'm coming home. Which makes me sad because I feel like the mom who cried wolf.   "Tell him I'll be home soon! Really! I promise"   On the road. Still....   But I think Archer's just over me. I think he's sad and I'm sad, too, honestly. I'm ready to come home. It's been really fun and fantastic and all-out amazing, don't get me wrong but it's been a long time now and living out of a suitcase away from my boys is starting to bum me out. I'm literally sick from burning the candle at fifteen different ends. Trying to hit up 10 cities in one month is rough on any bitch, but pregnancy doesn't make it any easier, I'll tell you what...   Read More... Posted May 03 2008, 10:54 PM by GirlsGoneChild with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: rockabye, book tour

• Road Trippin'

  Life on the road is a pretty surreal place to be. I’ve been gone almost a week now and I feel like I’m operating in some kind of alternate, dream-like universe. I speak to Hal every day and chat with Archer on the computer. But we’re all very busy and Archer seems to be more interested in playing with his train or riding his bike or coloring his CARS coloring book than kissing the computer screen when I ask him to. He misses me of course. He calls out for me in the mornings to fetch him from his crib, Hal tells me, and at night I dream about him smiling at me from fogged-windows.  But still. At the end of the day or the hour or the moment, after I hang up the phone with Hal or close the computer on Archer's smiling face, I’m with someone else’s family. Being cooked for and cleaned after and cared for. And then at night I read about my kid and my husband and my family in front of friends and strangers and people ask where Archer is and I say “he’s with his Dad” and people ask if I miss him and I say “yes” because of course I miss him. It’s impossible not to miss him.  But at the same time, whoa. This is a really special experience I’m having and it kind of feels right that I’m spending it alone.   I keep reminding myself, whenever I feel sad or guilty for leaving Archer, that this is my time. My moment. My experience and how very important that is. That just as important as it is for me to support and nurture my family I must also support and nurture myself...   Read More... Posted Apr 25 2008, 09:39 PM by GirlsGoneChild with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: rockabye, book tour

• Packing Without a Suitcase

  I leave Sunday for two and a half weeks to promote Rockabye up the western coast. And I'm going by myself. At first, I had this fantasy of bringing Archer, of having a sort of caravan situation, but it wasn't realistic and if I've learned anything these past few signings, a book signing is no place for an almost-three year old. No place for my almost-three-year old.      Archer at my Book Soup reading in Los Angeles. He insisted on reading an excerpt himself. Cute but the kid's heavy and underneath those lights, man, was I ever sweating like a wrestler.    So I'm packing my stuff, even though I don't have a suitcase. My suitcases are all down south in San Diego in my parent's garage which is where I still store my stuff because I'm, like, eighteen still. Trapped in the pregnant body of a twenty-six year old. It feels weird packing for myself. I'm so used to packing for all of us. For Archer. His duffel bag remains empty. He's staying here with Hal, who still hasn't found a job since the writer's strike happened back in December. It's a struggle right now for all of us but the silver-lining is that Hal gets to be with his son. They get to have boy time, which is a lucky thing. We're all grateful for that. Hopeful that the job market might smile down upon us but grateful for the time it has allowed for my boys to bond like homies.    The last time I went to San Francisco I was pregnant with Archer so it feels kind of neat to return, pregnant with #2. It feels kind of like I'm going on an adventure not alone. And when Babe II is born I can tell him/her about his/her pre-life adventure up the coast with me in my pocket. From San Francisco to Vancouver and all the places in between and how I rubbed my belly for good luck.   Read More... Posted Apr 17 2008, 09:59 AM by GirlsGoneChild with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: on the road, packing issues, rockabye, book tour