Mommywood Read Free Page B

be himself without all the cameras.
    When Liam is older, I‘ll try to give him options. I mean, I‘m a proud mother and I have to say that I think Liam‘s a natural-born entertainer. He is funny and outgoing and loves to be the center of attention. But I‘m going to make sure he has the college education I missed and the self-confidence I lacked. I want him to feel free to pursue whatever life appeals to him.
    When it matters to him, I hope I‘ll have given him all the tools he needs to be able to live out of the spotlight if that‘s what he chooses.
     

Baby Honeymoon
    W hen Liam was born, Dean and I took two months off Tori & Dean: Inn Love . We had a maternity/paternity leave. It was a brief, idyllic period when Liam got to be a baby just like any other baby and I felt just like every other mom.
    At first I was breastfeeding constantly. But I wasn‘t producing enough milk, so I supplemented with a bottle. We fell quickly into a rhythm. Liam would sleep, wake up, nurse, have a bottle, play, go back to sleep. He slept a lot, and I had downtime during the day for the first time in years. Patsy (remember, our baby nurse) got me back on soap operas. I hadn‘t seen soap operas in years. But nothing changes on soap operas. They practically move in real time. Here were all the same characters and story lines that I remembered from ten years before. In one day I was completely caught up. And hooked. So the schedule was more like watch All My Children, nurse Liam, watch One Life to Live, give Liam his bottle, watch General Hospital, nurse Liam, watch Oprah, and so on. It was a taste of what being a stay-at-home mom would be like, and I loved it. (Okay, a stay-at-home mom with full-time help—not realistic, I know.) After a little bit we started to take Liam out in the world. I‘d never had a baby before. I didn‘t know what to expect. But Liam was happy to go anywhere. We‘d bring him to a restaurant in his car seat carrier. If he was awake, he‘d look around and smile. If he was tired, he‘d take a nap. Having a baby was a piece of cake. Patsy told us not every baby was so accommodating. We‘d been blessed with an easy baby and we took full advantage. We were blissfully happy and we wanted to celebrate. We went out for brunches, dinners, and drinks. It was the hotel hop—the Four Seasons for cocktails, the Peninsula for tea, the Beverly Hills Hotel for early dinner. Sometimes it was just the three of us: Dean, Liam, and me. Sometimes we brought Patsy to show her places she‘d never been before and tell her stories about what had gone down at one hotel or another in my single days. Every day we went out to walk and eat at least one meal with Liam.
    The baby nurse, the fancy hotels, the time off, the easy baby—
    these made us different from some, but the feelings we had were just like those of any new parents. It was so exciting. We were so proud.
    When our two-month break was over, we went back home to our duties running our bed-and-breakfast, and our cameras followed for the second season of Tori & Dean: Inn Love . We packed up our car, drove up to the inn, showed Liam around, and settled in. Within a few days the phone rang. It was an offer from the TV station that was launching the first season of our show in England. They wanted us to come to London to promote the premiere. I ran to tell Dean the news. Dean‘s initial reaction was to say, ―No way! We just got geared up to work here. Liam is two months old. We can‘t do it.
    I said, ―But they‘ll fly the whole family! And Patsy! To Europe! We should do it. It‘d be really great. The show could follow us there and film the trip.
    Dean still thought the idea was insane. He said, ―Okay, it‘s crazy to do this right now. We‘re still adjusting to the new baby.
    But as long as we‘re there, I want to take you to Scotland.
    Dean‘s family is Scottish. He wanted me to see the homeland.
    So now we were going to London and Scotland. And then to Toronto to