Yahooo!!! Something NEEEW!!!
Jumping out of an enormous SUV, Heidi Klum is a vision in black: jeans, sweater, sneakers, and inky mascara highlighting her eyes. No, wait a minute. Those are false eyelashes.
"Yesterday's false eyelashes," confesses the 37-year-old wife, supermodel, and mother of four. It's refreshing to hear that the host of two Lifetime series — Seriously Funny Kids (a modern twist on Candid Camera) and the reality fashion competition Project Runway — sometimes has such busy days that she, like so many other moms, goes to bed without taking off her makeup.
And yesterday was a doozy. In addition to work and tending to her husband, Grammy Award — winning singer Seal, and their four kids — older daughter Leni, 7; sons Henry, 5, and Johan, 4; and Lou, her baby girl who just turned 18 months — Klum is still housebreaking two new German shepherd puppies, Freddy and Max. She had a rough night, too: "Some weird stomach virus is going around the house," she says, digging into her purse. She pulls out a packet of zwieback biscuits, the old-fashioned teething cookies. She might have bought them for her daughter Lou, but today Klum is eating them to settle her stomach.
The hardworking mom simply doesn't do sick days: "I march through it," she says. It is precisely this mix of practicality, straight talk, and good humor that has made Klum an estimated $16 million — a-year success. In the past decade, she's put her name on perfume (her newest, Shine, arrives in stores this fall), jewelry, cosmetics, jeans, sandals, and a line with New Balance sold exclusively on amazon.com: "It's shoes and activewear, not really gym clothes, but for girls who want to look active." (Her emphasis is on "look," which she says with a wink.)
She's also just become an AOL blogger with a site called Planet Heidi, which covers parenting as well as cooking, nutrition, fashion, and interior design. A regular reader of other mom blogs, Klum hopes that her site will become an educational forum for mothers. "Apart from sharing my tips on toys or snacks, I'm open to hearing new ideas from other moms," she explains. "I want to learn, too."
Klum may be a prosperous multimedia businesswoman, but she is most proud of the job she has done of raising considerate kids, ones who say "please" and "thank you" without prodding. "I'm very happy when I see them just doing it by themselves, because it takes a few years," she says. "For the longest time, you just sound like a broken record, but you have to be consistent when teaching kids."
Consistency is also her personal success secret. "Keeping it all together as a modern woman means multitasking, especially when you work," she says. "I think you always need to try your best, but at the same time you can only do what you can do, and you don't need to beat yourself up about it. I'm not white-picket-fence perfect."
As a matter of fact, her British husband says that after six years of marriage, she still doesn't make tea the way he likes it. "The water can never be hot enough for him, and only when the tea is just the right color can you add the milk," she says, laughing. "Maybe when I'm 80, I'll be allowed to make it."
Listening to her schedule, you might think Klum sounds so hopelessly overcommitted that learning how to make the perfect cuppa might indeed have to wait that long. She knows that not staying at home with the children is a trade-off, and that she may miss out on everyday milestones in her kids' lives. "There are moments that I wish I was there for," she says. "For example, when Lou almost fell over and little 4-year-old Johan caught her."
Her desire to succeed and then, perhaps, retire from on-camera work in the near future may be strong, but Klum has repeatedly turned down the lure of doing a daily talk show. It's a sacrifice she never thought twice about. That would simply mean too much time away from the best parts of her day: feeding Lou, driving the children to school, family dinner at 6 P.M. every night, and snuggling with her kids in her bed before the sandman comes.
Her priorities couldn't be clearer. "Family comes first," Klum insists. "You're the only thing they have." (Perhaps this is why one of her favorite charities is an orphanage in Germany; she wrote a book about the tooth fairy, the proceeds of which benefit the parentless kids there.)
Read more: Heidi Klum on Marriage and Motherhood - Heidi Klum Interview and Quotes - Good Housekeeping