Celebrity Baby Blog /

Uma Thurman Tells Moms: 'Be Who You Are'

Courtesy W

When Ethan Hawke welcomed a baby with wife Ryan Shawhughes — former nanny to the actor’s two children Maya Ray, 11, and Levon Roan, 7 ½ — it raised eyebrows, but you won’t catch his ex-wife Uma Thurman casting any stones. Vowing to “be positive and move forward,” she tells the October issue of W magazine that “you kind of owe it to your children to not leave a lot of mess.”

“They didn’t ask for it, and they don’t need to hear about it.”

Revealing that she’ll never move from New York City — “we can’t live anywhere else because my children’s father lives here,” she explains — Uma admits that she’s also been reluctant to take acting jobs elsewhere for fear of being away from the kids. “I’ve been living at home for work for a long time,” the 39-year-old Kill Bill star notes. “If I don’t leave soon, I’m going to literally choke my career to death.”

Now that Maya and Levon are “getting more independent,” however, Uma says she’s “kind of maybe, slightly selfishly” thinking about working again.

“You know, I do care about my work, and it is part of me. And I am a mother, but I need to do what I’m good at doing. You really can’t let go of all of yourself…Even your kids need you to be who you are.”

Who she is — or was, as the case may be — will be on full display next month with the release of Motherhood, which chronicles the life of a New Yorker mom-of-two over the course of one day. The film “captures so much of the joy and frustration and the weird tension between your old self and your new self, and the loneliness of parenting too,” Uma says. “It was so real and so honest about how hard it is to be a mother and also a full person who’s true to herself.” She adds,

“It was like seeing five years of my life.”

Motherhood opens October 16.

Source: W; October issue

– Missy

Knowledge is Power For Constance Marie

Alison Dyer for PEOPLE for use on CBB

When she was still an expectant mother, Constance Marie did her homework — and then some! “I studied more for having a baby than I did for the SATs,” the 40-year-old actress tells Us Weekly. “I took every single class you could possibly take; I took CPR…I took baby care…I read every book.”

Although some moms are content to let instinct be their guide, Constance — who welcomed daughter Luna Marie, 7 months, in February — took a different approach. She explains,

“I did everything possible because I wanted every ounce of knowledge that I could possibly have.”

It didn’t take Constance long to learn “how many things trigger danger,” and she says that together with fiancé Kent Katich, baby-proofing is high on their list of priorities. “We just keep anything that could poke her, pinch her, or hurt her — in any way — away from her,” she explains.

The couple have already done their part to make Luna’s immediate surroundings as safe as possible, however, with a top-to-bottom eco-friendly nursery. “In my research I found out that the nursery can be one of the most toxic rooms in the house, because the carpet is new, the paint is new, the furniture is new,” she notes.

“There is stuff to worry about and you can make yourself crazy, but as long as you’ve taken every precaution that you possibly can, you can’t do any better than that.”

The couple’s favorite family time is dinner. “Luna sits in the middle [of the table] on a changing pad, with a pacifier in her mouth,” Constance describes with a smile, “looking to one side as Kent is eating, and then at me as I’m eating, and she sits there [sucking and staring].”

The best part of motherhood, however, are Luna’s toothless grins. “When she smiles it doesn’t matter how much sleep I haven’t gotten, it doesn’t matter how poopy her diapers are, it doesn’t matter anything because she loves me and I love her and I’ve never experienced anything like it,” Constance raves.

Source: Us Weekly

– Missy