Happy Chaos (12 page)

I love cooking with the girls, and I've learned a few tricks for how to make it fun and relaxing for me as well as for the kids. First, it's really important to put things on their level. So in our kitchen we have a small table and chairs where they can sit and stir or decorate our latest creation. When I'm making salad at the counter, I have them stand on a chair next to me, and after I cut the vegetables, they put them in the bowl and mix it up. And believe me, kids are a lot likelier to eat a salad that they've helped to make. Here are some of my other favorite things to make with the girls, and yes, we love dessert:

I don't know what happened, but recently I started baking like crazy and now I can't stop. There's something about the moment the heavy whipping cream turns into peaks, and pouring the sugar into the measuring cup while the sun shines through the window. It is literally like therapy. My husband looked at me today in total disbelief after I had made a strawberry pie, banana bread, and two different chocolate-chip-cookie recipes. Of course, our kitchen looked like a tornado hit it, but truly I have to say I have found such joy out of baking. And the fact that I get to do it with my little ones makes us all happy. So next time you need to get something out, instead of screaming, crying, or heading to the gym (although I should probably do that one of these days soon), I say put on some of your favorite tunes and bake like crazy. Let the flour fly and the vanilla drip, and just let go and have fun.

Question of the day: What is your all-time favorite name?

“Maggie.”

—Stephanie

“Cassandra.”

—Jeannette C.

“Ophelia.”

—Dana

“Sophia.”

—Natalie

 

M
y family has always loved unique names. With names like Soleil and Meeno, my big brother and I cherished our individuality. Between me, my brother, godbrother, extended family, and friends, we all carried on the family tradition.

Since I was a little girl, people have asked me about my name. Soleil means “sun” in French. One of the inspirations for my name came from a song my mother loved from
Annie Get Your Gun
—“I've Got the Sun in the Morning (and the Moon at Night).” As a little girl, I was so happy to hear the story about how I was named—and how my mom thought her baby daughter was the sun and the moon. I've always wanted my girls to feel just as happy with their own names. I wanted them to know that there was no one else on earth just like them. My father wanted to name me Megan, but at the end of the day, my mom won the name battle.

I was only six weeks pregnant when we first thought of the name Poet, and we immediately liked the idea that we could call her Poe for short. But we didn't quite settle on it at that point. Then it was Father's Day, and Poet was due in a few months. We were walking around in Santa Monica thinking,
What are we going to name this baby?
We were in a little shop and we looked up to see a framed quote by Edgar Allan Poe: “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” And right next to that was a mug that said, “Poet.” It felt like she named herself. Poet's middle name was inspired by a cathedral in Siena, Italy, where I'd said a little prayer before I got pregnant with her. And she had two great-grandmothers—one on either side—named Rose. And there she was, our Poet Sienna Rose Goldberg.

With Jagger, I remember she was so strong in my stomach and she would give me the hardest kicks in the world. I knew she had to be the strongest baby—she felt like a boxer! She was a little Jagger from conception. Then it was funny, because she was born with the most peaceful demeanor. She was just so calm and easy, a Buddha baby. But oh, all that strength was underneath. As soon as she could walk around and assert herself, we were like, oh yeah, she's a Jagger all right!

Jagger's middle name, Joseph, came from my godfather, who had passed away the year before she was born. He was the patriarch of my family—he'd been there when I was born, and he walked me down the aisle when I was married. We wanted him to live on in our family, and naming Jagger after him felt like the most natural tribute in the world. Then we came up with her other middle name—Blue—just because we loved it so much.

There are whole blog posts devoted to wacky Hollywood names, and a few of those have definitely mentioned our kids, but in my family, unconventional names are the norm. My brother's name is Meeno, and he literally named himself. My mother lived with him in India when he was little. He was a few years old, and one day as they were hiking, a monk asked his name. My mother said, “Miro” (his given name), and he turned and said, “No longer Miro; now Meeno.” So Meeno it was. His girls are named Bindi and Mette. We've got my godbrother, Joachim, his sons, Orpheau and Jobim, not to mention other wonderful wild names in our family. So Soleil, Poet, and Jagger are just more entries in a grand family tradition. When my friends and I sit around talking about names, we turn to everything for inspiration—literary references, favorite places, special family members—whatever is truly meaningful to us.

Now that my girls are five and two, I like to think that they're the perfect embodiments of their names. But the truth is, they could have the most traditional names in the world, or the most unusual. And no matter what we named them, they'd still be utterly unique and completely themselves.

Some people choose to keep their baby names a secret before giving birth, and others decide to share it with the world. Just remember that people will always have an opinion. It would be great if all those opinions were nothing but positive, but the fact is that they won't always be. So just be prepared . . . and if people say, “How interesting,” just smile and say, “Thanks, I think so.” Not that I am speaking from personal experience or anything. :)

I love coming up with baby names. It is one of my favorite things to do. I have friends who walk around with lists or keep names in a secret diary—even the ones who don't have babies yet. It is awesome. A really fun thing to do is to keep a little journal. When you are inspired by something or someone, write it down. Then go back and add to it from time to time. I still have names that I came up with when I was twelve. Don't be afraid to be imaginative and to have fun.

If I could go by any name other than my own, it would be....

“When I was younger I wanted my name to be Samantha. Now I'm happier with my own name.”

—Sherry

A family of wacky names: Mette, Meeno, Soleil, Poet, Jagger, Bindi . . . and Jason

“Isabella.”

—Carrie

“Natalia, the name that my father wanted to give me, but my mother won that one. I am now Nicole. . . eh, still an N person. :o)”

—Nicole A.G.

“Mommy is just fine :)”

—Amy L.

Question of the day: What was your favorite birthday party ever?

“When I turned Sweet 16! I woke up to 16 balloons in my room, and later had a wonderful party with lots of friends and family. It was still the best one yet!”

—Jeannette C.

“The only sleepover I ever had. My mom rarely let kids spend the night, so it was a special treat to have several over at once.”

—Dana

“My daughters' 13th dance party in my garage.”

—Natalie

“When I turned 16 and my parents had a surprise party for me and they invited a bunch of my friends and we played volleyball and went swimming and had a BBQ.”

—Yolanda

“My favorite party was when I was 18, but I'm still young and I expect to have another great one when I hit 30 and 60 and 90!!!”

—Tazia

 

J
ust like holidays, birthdays have always been incredibly important to me. To this day I can remember almost every birthday celebration I've ever had. And it's not about the presents. What I remember most is how my mother showered me with attention, made my favorite foods, and always made me feel special and loved.

For my sweet sixteen my mom had the awesome idea to have a reggae bash. She rented a party boat that would take us around Marina del Rey, and she thought it would be really cute for me to stand at the front of the boat as it pulled in to the dock, where all of my friends would be waiting for me. Try to picture this: me waving to everyone I knew, decked out in all my teenage glory. One of the highlights of my life is when I bump into my friend Kevin Connolly and we burst out laughing, remembering how ridiculous I looked standing there in the bow of the boat, in my skintight cherry-red dress and cowboy boots, waving to everyone. In retrospect, it is hilarious.

Another birthday that stands out was my twelfth. It was a big party, and the last season of
Punky
—a huge milestone in my life. I was dressed in the coolest eighties trends—hot pink lace bloomers under a black spandex dress with hot pink polka dots. The hotel banquet room was filled with pink balloons, and everyone was there—family, and friends I'd grown up with in and out of the business. I was laughing and hugging everyone, and then in walked my special surprise: Johnny Depp. He was starring in
21 Jump Street
at the time, and I had met him a few times before. We shared the same publicist, Jeff, who knew what a massive crush I had on Johnny, so this was his birthday gift to me. He came to the party with his buddy C. Thomas Howell. I still remember what Johnny was wearing: a yellow shirt and gray jacket. I'm pretty sure that a twelve-year-old's birthday party in a hotel banquet room was not Johnny's usual scene, but he was totally sweet about it. We were surrounded by kids, and photographers were all lined up in front of us, and after a while I could tell that the guys were ready to leave, but the route out was blocked. So I grabbed each of them by the hand and said, “Follow me!” While my friends watched in total surprise, I led Johnny and C. Thomas Howell through the crowd and out of the banquet room, and went running through the halls of the hotel, down steps, and down more halls and stairs, and finally all the way down to the lobby, where I located a bar. How did I know at age twelve where the bar was, or that these guys would appreciate being led there? I don't know. Let's just say I was precocious.