This question is from my daughter, “In person, is Disney's Sterling Knight a prince or a dick?” (I paraphrased)

He was very nice and polite the one time I met him...  He introduced himself saying something like, "I'm playing the dick teen idol."  I appreciated the self-deprecation, but I also sensed a sort of a typical Disney-kid slick to him. Often they're nice but essentially artificial. I don't blame the kids. I blame the machine that made them. God help them when they're left to their own devices. Need I remind anyone that Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were Disney teens. The kid fame machine is like handing someone a little bit of heroin and saying, "If you're cute and lovable, we'll give you more. But, now, people will be watching you, so don't abuse it."

But regarding Sterling specifically, I had no scenes with him, so I almost almost no interaction with him.

As a young girl, which cartoon or live kids’ TV character did you have a crush on?

OK, I remember thinking "Josie and the Pussycats" were the grooviest gals around. I guess I always crushed on cartoon females (and there weren't very many... Have always been more into female TV characters in general and bummed by the dearth of them. Really, was already a feminist at 8 years old.)

Had very little interest in cartoon males, unless you count Shmoo, and I think he was asexual or genderless or neutered or something. I always wanted a Shmoo doll who would do just what cartoon Shmoo would do. I fantasized about creating a proto-type that wouldn't be a stuffed animal or rubbery, but smooth and gelatinous. Having said all this, I'm sure I'm the only one around who even remembers Shmoo. (Wikipedia tells me it was a 1979 Hanna-Barbera cartoon called "The New Shmoo" about a group of teens solving mysteries with Shmoo's help. Shmoo was originally a character from Al Capp's comic strip "Li'l Abner.")

Regarding Blues Clues, are you on Team Steve or Team Joe?

My husband and I always found the tone and pace of the show kind of slow and creepy -- you know the way the guy talks? And our son (Jackson, just turned 5) never seemed into it, so we never really had it on.

The show we're all huge fans of is "Phineas and Ferb." It's like a "Simpsons" that your 5 your old can watch - it has goofy charm, incredible wit, real heart and great musical numbers, to boot.

When did you first find yourself “in the weeds” as a parent and how did you recover?

I was really walloped by postpartum depressions. But I was kind of saying, "No, no, I'm not depressed... I just can't stop crying." I felt super-fragile, sure that I had to listen for his every breath (ie. that if I went to sleep, he'd be dead when I woke up) and sort of ill-equipped to handle it all. I had mastitis a couple of times very early on and I'd have to take antibiotics, and then we'd pass thrush (a yeast infection) back and forth b/t his mouth and my nipples. I had the whole nine yards with breastfeeding - bleeding and blisters. He had very bad colic the first 3 months. At some point I said to my husband, "I don't think this is working out." And I meant the breast feeding, but I could have also meant "this whole parenting thing"... I think he was afraid that's what I did mean. That or maybe the marriage.

The good news is that I believe in calling in as many resources as possible. And by that I mean: psychiatrists and lactation consultants and baby nurses and pediatricians who'll talk to you on a Friday night about what psycho-pharmaceuticals are safe to nurse with.

It all got better and better. Breastfeeding certainly did, but also my feeling strong and capable as a parent. The fact is, I started to really love being a mother, and that feeling grows stronger all the time. Just when you think you can't get any more tickled by parenting this kid, along comes a new level of heart-bursting glee.

But re. the postpartum, I talk about it as much as possible, b/c I've almost never found anyone who didn't have some measure of it; even if they say, "No it was b/c I was depressed about my C section, the birth not going the way I wanted it to" or "No, it's just that breast-feeding was so hard" or "I was just so tired." Well, it's really always all of the above, but I do think PPD hits almost everyone is some way. But there was one woman I asked who categorically denied having any feelings of postpartum depression whatsoever. I asked again, skeptically, "Really, nothing at all?"

"Nope," she said, "because I never went off my anti-depressants in the first place."

As a working actress and mom, what is your secret to maintaining the balance and your sanity?

I only have one kid (although we're trying to adopt a second) and he's in school from 9-3, so it's feeling easy enough to handle mothering these days. Hard scheduling childcare with the crazy freelance, last-minute nature of being an actress (eg. you've got nothing at all to do on any given day OR 3 auditions come in the night before OR you're spending 12 to 14 hours on a set.) But I drop him off down the street with a friend's nanny and guarantee her a minimum each week, and it works.

My husband is a little less free-lancey than I am. But there's been a lot of time where he's been Mr. Mom, and that's been great. He's got an incredibly special relationship with Jackson. We really do live the co-parenting dream. (Now if only we could live the dream of equally sharing the housework and bill-paying and calender-keeping and school-and-activity organizing and contact with family and friends and present-buying and travel-planning and do I sound bitter?)

Re. keeping sane -- I try to allow myself enough childcare to get in a meal by myself at a diner while I just sit and read a novel for an hour or two. More than once a week, if possible. Or tool around the mall. Or take a dance class. These things really re-charge my batteries.

It's this being-an-actress business that makes it truly hard to stay sane and serene. In fact, I think it takes a ton of spiritual work to avoid becoming a ball of voracious need and insecurity and discontent. And I really try to do that spiritual work. I write gratitude lists. Remind myself that life is good and full of love and I've got everything I need and it's all happening as it should and I don't have to worry too much about what's coming next.
I stop doing things that make me feel bad, like looking for other actresses (in magazines, the paper, online) to compare myself to (the old "compare and despair.") I've got my own great stuff happening that has nothing to do with anyone else. And who got what part really has nothing to do with me. I really don't read entertainment mags or glossies at all.
If I do feel envy or resentment, there's this trick that's hard to do, but it works: you pray for the success of that person you're envious of or resentful towards. For 14 days. (In all honesty, I'm not sure I've ever made it for the full 14 days, but what are ya gonna do?)

How has being an improviser helped you as a parent?

I roll with everything. For an uptight gal, I'm a pretty chill parent. I say yes (or "yes, and") to everything. And I try to embrace spontaneous adventure.

Also, the constant making up of silly songs. The role-playing games. The going into character voices at the drop of a hat (he loves being read to, so I use this skill a lot with the story books.)

I actually think being a parent has also really helped me as an improviser, b/c I spend so much time with him in blissful oblivion about what the rest of the world thinks. The childlike-freedom thing is a cliche, but true. It's really fun to try and live there with him -- no editing or self-consciousness. And I struggled so much with that crap throughout my life: "How did that sound?... Was that OK?... Is this funny enough to say? Probably not..." (and then 30 seconds later someone else says the very same thing that your internal editor just rejected and, guess what? It was funny enough.)

Interestingly, in the last few years, I've become more and more confident -- as a parent and as a person in the world (sort of a mamma bear thing) -- but also as a funny woman. I've finally decided that I'm really good at what I do, and that sense of my own talent is not quite as easily shaken as it used to be. Is this what we get as a midlife reward? Everything on my body may be going to shit, but I finally feel a little self-actualized...

Fill in the blank:

If my kids see the video of the time I had to ___________ they will never stop making fun of me.

This is what's so great about his age right now. He doesn't make fun. Everything is gloriously goofy and over-the-top joyful. But some day... it will be the video my friends and I made our junior year of HS in which I'm dressed like Tim Curry in Rocky Horror Picture Show (ie. as Drag Queen) and lip syching and dancing around to "Sweet Transvestite".

I want to be my child for one day just so I could_________________.

Have as much fun as he does just going through his day... doing flips onto the couch cushions or just sitting in his car seat playing with his Star Wars action figures -- As Darth Vader: "Luke, I am your father... If you fight me with your light saber, I am going to put you in a time-out."

If you could outsource any aspect of parenting (aspects of pregnancy and childbirth included), what would it be?

Gaining the 50 lbs with pregnancy (and bed rest.)

The early days after his birth -- the constant crying of colic, the postpartum (see my "in the weeds" answer above.)

The interrupted nights. Mamma needs her sleep bad. Thank God he's a good sleeper now, but midway through that first year, I was like a prisoner of war.

Even now: the occasional vomiting or illness in the middle of the night... Someone else, take him, please.