CBB Exclusive: Chantal Kreviazuk talks to us about her "perfect little posse"
Chantal Kreviazuk recently spoke to us exclusively about motherhood and her two sons, Rowan Michael, 3, and Lucca Jon, 22 months, with Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida. Chantal talks about motherhood, her sons’ personalities and favorite things, their milestones, Rowan’s celebrity baby playdate, and one of her new songs, which is about a mother’s profound love for her children.
We are giving away 10 signed copies of Chantal’s new album Ghost Stories. The music is amazing and includes the song about motherhood; All I Can Do. Click the extended post to find out how you can win a copy and to listen to the song. Please note: CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED.
All images are personal photos from Chantal and her husband, for use exclusively on The Celebrity Baby Blog, Inc.
Click below for the interview, more photos and to read/leave comments.
Rowan; his personality, being a great big brother and perhaps a drummer?
Rowan is very bright, caring and sensitive. He is at Montessori, enjoying a range of activities like yoga and gymnastics, soccer and cooking. Rowan is showing some great potential as a drummer, and he loves to write songs. He always asks if he can play us some "sheshons" (ie- sessions, as in drum sessions) and writes us songs on the spot that blow our minds.
He loves his little brother and gets really sad if he cannot get him to hug on command. He is a great big brother, usually very gentle and sensitive to his brother’s needs, but sometimes needs to enforce their pecking order. He is extremely handsome, with very bright beautiful blue eyes, and light hair, and a contagious smile. His features are soft, and people usually mistake him for a girl because he is just so pretty!
Lucca; the perfect second child who is absolutely gorgeous!
Lucca is not talking yet, because his brother speaks for him. He is perfect second child form, always eager to charm and please everyone, especially his big brother. He is very sensitive, and yet quite strong. His look is quite the opposite of his brother, with his mum’s Ukranian and native Canadian roots, as well as Dad’s Southern Italian side granting him the most beautiful dark skin tone I have ever seen. I am so jealous! He has the most gorgeous tan I have ever seen, and when he actually goes out in the sun for an afternoon, it is ridiculous!! And he also has blue eyes with hazel speckles in them. His features are really exaggerated; he has the largest mouth and eyes, and his voice is really big.
He is already showing some great abilities at kicking the ball, and he has a great arm! He loves to sing my songs and he loves to be loved. He is my little meatball, and Rowan is my little mango.
How are the boys different?
I think that Rowan is tentative, and he is not a follower. He never does what everyone else is doing, and doesn’t warm up to anything because of exposure or habit. He really goes at his own pace, and I love that about him. I think that Lucca is extremely sensitive to peoples’ feelings and he will do anything to make people happy. He is a lot more daring than his brother, and he is quite balanced between his physical and artistic sensibilities.
Rowan is in school and Lucca and his "mine" concept.
Rowan is in Montessori half the day, but it is still quite a drama when he gets dropped off. He is fine once he has a cry, but he is really attached to the homestead and mom and dad and all things familiar. He is learning to swim, and gaining more and more confidence in the water every week. I am hoping that the arm floaties can come off this summer! Lucca is finally less needy in the night. He is now in that hard sleeping zone, which makes him so much more happy and into his whole flow. He is now riding a little tricycle of his own, and loves being pushed around in it; he is really into the concept of "mine."
What are their favorite things – toys, playing, tv shows?
Ro loves Balloon fighting, riding his bike and his train set. He loves anything on Noggin; he just cannot get enough, so we really have to be careful. While I love the programming, with great messages and music, I still want him to be into the real world, and not the tv set. SO, we try to avoid tv, but if I had to pick a show, I would say that he loved Jay Jay the Jet Plane and Lazy Town.
Lucca loves his "gunk gunk…" his shark puppet (actually it is also the name of his dolphin puppet, and he loves to have one on each hand. Gunk Gunk is how he enunciates that sound for the "Jaws" film theme music.) He loves pretty much anything his brother does, so playing the drums, riding his bike, riding their zip cord in the yard, painting, drawing, playing their guitars and singing and dancing!!! There is always so much happening! He loves the Little Bear show and Franklin of course.
What are your favourite baby items? What clothing lines do you love? What is your favorite stroller? What do the boys rooms look like?
I love anything for carrying baby on me. Slings, Baby Bjorns…I really believe that the closeness derived from these carrying aids were the foundation for our bond. I am sure I kept them in them as long as I could, and I am grateful for every moment we shared using these products.
Also, it was great gift, I felt, to not be putting bleach on my baby’s bottoms everyday diaper after diaper. In Seventh Generation, I found comfort, knowing that both their diapers and wipes were made as naturally as possible. The diapers are brown, and at first it is a bit strange, but now I find that if I am out of diapers and have to run to an all night drug store and am forced to get the "bleached" diapers, they look very odd to me. They also tend to have chemicals for scenting as well. I am now really uncomfortable with this.
I love a range of baby clothes brands. Because babies grow SO quickly, I tend to go for comfort and not be too pretentious with their clothes. It is a bit of a waste of money. Having said that, I find that the cheaper clothes are made by companies that produce their products in other countries whose labour laws are inconsistent and unethical. This is a tough issue for me, as I wonder what would happen to such people if there were no jobs at all! (Ongoing dinner debates in our house!)
Admittedly, I love the Gap pjs, and their Sunday clothes! I love the Old Navy sweat pants and snow clothes. But I love the soft feel of Splendid clothes for kids, and the style of Small Paul is adorable. I love the Claude rock and roll shirts, and Lucky brand does a lot of great jeans and tees. Of course Joe’s jeans and Paper Denim Cloth jeans are great, and Diesels are adorable too. Rowan also has a great pair of Levis, which I think Lucca is just about into. My favorite favorite favorite line for kids, is out of Canada, made by women in Africa in an eco village. It is called Earth Child. These clothes are unique, adorable, soft and classy/cool. What a bonus that buying the clothes helps a phenomenal cause as well!?
Click the song name to listen to it:
The song All I Can Do is about the profound love a mother has for her children and how we cannot force our perspectives and experiences and opinions onto our children. We have the ultimate task of guiding our children’s life forces, so that they might become the optimum them! What a privilege and challenge! I know that there are going to be times that it will be quite painful to go ahead and support them in their choices, but I will never ever try to control my children, or suppress any of their instincts. I will be honest with them. I will teach them as best I can, and then I will have to leave it up to them.
I have often thought about moms who have to let their sons go to war, or even put a uniform on every day to go to work as a police officer. I have thought about the possibility that they will face pain and suffering and disappointment in their lives. They are going to experience the spectrum of emotions that all humans do – that I have.
I would love to just put my kids in a love bubble and protect them from ever having to face anything. But, the reality is that the moment we are born, we begin dying and along that road there are triumphs and losses leading to the ultimate challenge of passing through this world onto the next. While this may sound depressing, it is honest. I even ask myself sometimes if it was selfish to bring them into such a complicated existence! My therapy for some of this thought process was writing All I Can Do, which essentially says, the answer is in simply loving them (to pieces). Being loving is the only thing I know for sure that I can do.
Living in Los Angeles:
I have the distinct pleasure of living a very private and simple life in LA. We live in a very exclusive canyon that is a well kept hidden gem in LA. While I am in LA, I never feel like I am. I rarely ever have to drive all the way into Hollywood or downtown. We basically keep to ourselves and our neighborhood and do fine. I am not certain about raising our kids all the way through in LA. It works right now. The weather is amazing, and due t
o our work, it is pretty important now that we stay around here for a little longer. I love it here, but I recognize that the pressures that go along with being a teenager might be a little inflated in LA, so we’ll just have to see how things work out.
I could really see us ending up back in Canada, or moving to Italy. We love Italy, and Raine’s family is from there, and we just love the lifestyle and culture – people in Europe tend to work to live rather than the reverse.
Breastfeeding!
I breast fed Rowan for 8 months, and Lucca for 3. I found it incredibly difficult to breastfeed, but did it for as long as I could on both boys. My births were uncannily simple and painless, so I got my pay back with having (shall we say) perhaps not the most ideal nipple tissue for breast feeding. I was drinking red wine just to latch! Both boys had a perfect latch. I don’t believe in the myth that if there is pain you are doing something wrong at all. All women have different nipple tissue, and I believe it is just easier for some of us than others! I stopped breast feeding Lucca after just 3 months because I was emaciated. I couldn’t keep up with him! The boys were just 16 months apart, so I think that I just didn’t have enough fuel (or sleep) to produce what he needed.
She absolutely loved pregnancy!
I loved pregnancy for the most part. In the first pregnancy, I just was anxious to meet the baby, and it took forever, it seemed to get to the day of his birth! But on the second baby, I felt really relaxed and sometimes, I would even forget I was pregnant! I don’t really have any complaints about pregnancy to be honest. I swam about a mile every day or every other day during both pregnancies, and enjoyed that immensely. Time in the water was so relaxing, and the feeling of being weightless always replenished my energy source! I think that in the end, the only thing that drove me crazy was trying to sleep. It gets a little silly! Overall, I feel incredibly beautiful while pregnant, perhaps more so than ever in my life!
Preparing for the birth and motherhood; did she read any books?
I read bits and pieces. I did not want to get over programmed and scare myself. I sort of felt that if there were 7 or 8 billion people on the planet, and that they all made it through the birth canal, I would be fine!
Favorite thing about being a mom?
I just love having challenges in my day to day life as a working woman of the millennium. Getting all caught up and swept away with it all, and then in an instant, finding total perspective and joy in the boys, seemingly forgetting about anything and everything else that for a second, was almost important! They are the most incredible teachers I could ever ask for. Their love and need for me, their mother has healed me of any insecurities, regrets or failures from my past, and given me greater purpose than I could have ever imagined. They have also led me to the impossible – loving and respecting my husband more that before they were born.
Surprises about motherhood?
I am not an anxious or stressed mother. Being a "type A" personality, someone who is such a perfectionist, I am so pleased that I am a pretty relaxed mom. I think that this demeanor as a mom will mean a great deal for the boys in the end!
Favorite baby stage?
I think that they call it toddler, because it is a spin off word from tolerance. One simply has to learn patience very quickly!! I love it when the babies are brand spanking new, and they are so sleepy and cuddly and teeny tiny. It is such a short period, and must be cherished. Having said that, I am crazy about them at every stage; all of the things they say and do are so precious. Rowan says "computier" instead of computer. I hope he always says it that way. Our favorite restaurant is called City Bakery, and he calls it "Citery Bakery." Stuff like that makes me lose my mind and turns me into all melted heart.
They are definitely planning more children and even adoption.
Yes. Not every day do we believe that we will have more children, but usually, yes. Also, we feel strongly about adoption. We have adoption in our family, and so it is a value we share. We’ll see what the future holds. There is no greater gift than children. While our little posse is so perfect, and quite frankly quite easy as it is, I wonder if I would regret missing out on the opportunity to revel in my greatest role, mother for a little longer! I would just love to keep this train going as long as possible. It is so so perfect in every way.
