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" 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.  &amp;quot;Yesterday&amp;#039;s false eyelashes,&amp;quot; confesses the 37-year-old wife, supermodel, and mother of four. It&amp;#039;s refreshing to hear that the host of two Lifetime series \u2014 Seriously Funny Kids (a modern twist on Candid Camera)and the reality fashion competition Project Runway \u2014 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 \u2014 winning singer Seal, and their four kids \u2014 older daughter Leni, 7; sons Henry, 5, and Johan, 4; and Lou, her baby girl who just turned 18 months \u2014 Klum is still housebreaking two new German shepherd puppies, Freddy and Max. She had a rough night, too: &amp;quot;Some weird stomach virus is going around the house,&amp;quot; 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&amp;#039;t do sick days: &amp;quot;I march through it,&amp;quot; she says. It is precisely this mix of practicality, straight talk, and good humor that has made Klum an estimated $16 million \u2014 a-year success. In the past decade, she&amp;#039;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: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s shoes and activewear, not really gym clothes, but for girls who want to look active.&amp;quot; (Her emphasis is on &amp;quot;look,&amp;quot; which she says with a wink.)  She&amp;#039;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. &amp;quot;Apart from sharing my tips on toys or snacks, I&amp;#039;m open to hearing new ideas from other moms,&amp;quot; she explains. &amp;quot;I want to learn, too.&amp;quot; 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 &amp;quot;please&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;thank you&amp;quot; without prodding. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m very happy when I see them just doing it by themselves, because it takes a few years,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;For the longest time, you just sound like a broken record, but you have to be consistent when teaching kids.&amp;quot;  Consistency is also her personal success secret. &amp;quot;Keeping it all together as a modern woman means multitasking, especially when you work,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;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&amp;#039;t need to beat yourself up about it. I&amp;#039;m not white-picket-fence perfect.&amp;quot;  As a matter of fact, her British husband says that after six years of marriage, she still doesn&amp;#039;t make tea the way he likes it. &amp;quot;The water can never be hot enough for him, and only when the tea is just the right color can you add the milk,&amp;quot; she says, laughing. &amp;quot;Maybe when I&amp;#039;m 80, I&amp;#039;ll be allowed to make it.&amp;quot;  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&amp;#039; lives. &amp;quot;There are moments that I wish I was there for,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;For example, when Lou almost fell over and little 4-year-old Johan caught her.&amp;quot;  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&amp;#039;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&amp;#039;t be clearer. &amp;quot;Family comes first,&amp;quot; Klum insists. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re the only thing they have.&amp;quot; (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.)  Next:   The Heidi Chronicles  How did Heidi Klum become the powerhouse she is today? &amp;quot;We helped instill certain values to help Heidi make intelligent decisions in business and in life,&amp;quot; her mother, Erna Klum, says. Her daughter was born on June 1, 1973, in a small city near Cologne, Germany. Dad, Gunther, was a cosmetics-company executive, and Mom was a hairdresser. Her brother, Michael, was 10 years older. &amp;quot;I was the little sister that was annoying,&amp;quot; Klum says.  Mother and daughter were close; they&amp;#039;d spend time experimenting with new hairstyles and shopping together. As gorgeous as she is now, Klum did have an awkward phase. &amp;quot;I had a lot of pimples,&amp;quot; she insists, grimacing at the thought because she still gets the occasional zit.  &amp;quot;I was a good kid,&amp;quot; Klum recalls. &amp;quot;My parents laid rules out for me, and I followed them.&amp;quot; Her mother gave her one rule she has never forgotten: &amp;quot;Don&amp;#039;t rely on anybody,&amp;quot; Klum says. &amp;quot;I saw that you have to work to get what you want.&amp;quot; At 18, Klum won a modeling contest, landing a contract with an agency. It was 1992, the era of waifs like Kate Moss, and Klum suffered repeated rejection. &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t tall enough; my face wasn&amp;#039;t weird enough for what they wanted; I was too happy for everybody,&amp;quot; she recalls. Her command of English was weak, and she was living in a crummy apartment, missing her family. &amp;quot;At 19 years old, I was working and responsible for my own bills, laundry, and what I would eat for dinner when my friends still had their moms taking care of those things,&amp;quot; she sighs. It was an overwhelming period for a teen far from home, and it taught Klum to be resilient and resourceful. &amp;quot;You grow up fast. You grow a thick skin and the ability to stand stronger on your feet,&amp;quot; she declares. &amp;quot;I am who I am today because of that. Sometimes it&amp;#039;s good to walk the extra mile because maybe that has something to do with why things happen.&amp;quot; And indeed, her perseverance paid off, with Klum ultimately appearing on multiple magazine covers and finding mega-fame as a Victoria&amp;#039;s Secret&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Angel.&amp;quot; Sealed With a Kiss Despite being renowned for her beauty, Klum had a long journey to true love. She married hairstylist Ric Pipino at 24, and they divorced five years later. She did not marry Flavio Briatore, the biological father of daughter Leni; Briatore is decidedly not a part of her life. (In fact, Seal adopted Leni in 2009.) These are events Klum speaks about directly and in a way that suggests she leaves regrets in the past. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve been married before. I&amp;#039;ve had boyfriends. I&amp;#039;ve been cheated on. I&amp;#039;ve been heartbroken. I&amp;#039;ve broken hearts,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s part of life, and it&amp;#039;s part of figuring out who you are so you can find the right partner.&amp;quot; Klum and Briatore had broken up and she was pregnant when she bumped into Seal (full name: Seal Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel) in the lobby of a hotel in New York City. She recognized him immediately, and they began talking. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she felt something &amp;quot;magnetic, when you&amp;#039;re drawn toward that person and just want to know more.&amp;quot;  With her characteristic frankness, once they were dating the mother-to-be did not wait long to tell her new love interest that she was with child. Seal was present at the birth of Leni in May 2004, and in December of that year he proposed to Klum atop a glacier in the Canadian Rockies. They married in Mexico on May 10, 2005, and \u2014 talk about a great anniversary present \u2014 they renew their vows in a themed ceremony every year. &amp;quot;Last year we did all brides and all grooms \u2014 everyone wearing wedding dresses and tuxes,&amp;quot; Klum says.   Next:  When they retie the knot, she and her husband do so in private, with only the kids looking on. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s very romantic,&amp;quot; she says with a dreamy look in her eyes. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a sacred, special moment for us where we tell each other how we feel about each other. I get asked so many times,&amp;quot; she continues, &amp;quot;that I ask myself, Why does [our marriage] work so well? Maybe it&amp;#039;s just because it&amp;#039;s real. We love each other. We love our kids. We have fun with each other and in all the stages in our lives we go through together. What I wanted in a partnership is that I could still be who I am. There are many days where I don&amp;#039;t want to put on makeup. I want to be loved just as me.&amp;quot; Even apart, they remain connected and creative. One Valentine&amp;#039;s Day when Klum was traveling, Seal e-mailed her a photo of a gift box on a pillow. When back home, she opened the box to discover a beautiful ruby necklace. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s the most charming, loving, fun, gentlemanly, inspirational man I could have wished for,&amp;quot; Klum gushes. &amp;quot;He always makes me feel I&amp;#039;m the only woman in the world.&amp;quot; She is equally thoughtful, planning getaways when they are visiting her parents in Germany and the kids are taken care of. &amp;quot;We may be parents, but we can still make time to be a couple,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll go shopping together. The kids think that&amp;#039;s the most boring thing on the planet.&amp;quot;  It&amp;#039;s a good way for the supermodel to refresh her wardrobe: Klum is a firm believer in dressing up for her guy. She thinks flirting, no matter how innocently, is disrespectful. The result is a still-sizzling love life. &amp;quot;We like to have fun with each other,&amp;quot; she says, this time in a sexy purr. &amp;quot;We do have four kids.&amp;quot; Seal&amp;#039;s fathering skills make him even more lovable, she says. &amp;quot;He always puts family first, too. It&amp;#039;s about being Dad every day.&amp;quot; When the kids nod off in Mommy and Daddy&amp;#039;s room, he carries them to their beds: &amp;quot;He says one of his favorite times of day is when Lou wakes up in the morning [and he gets up] and so it&amp;#039;s just the two of them.&amp;quot; Klum never doubted her decision to have a large family so quickly. &amp;quot;Every time I left the hospital with a big smile on my face and a baby in my arms, I said to the nurse, &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll be back next year!&amp;#039; &amp;quot; she giggles. Klum even invited her parents to witness the births. &amp;quot;We are very close,&amp;quot; her mother says. &amp;quot;Heidi and her husband let us be a part of their lives, and a lot of young people don&amp;#039;t do that anymore. Seeing your daughter giving birth to your grandchildren is an incredibly special moment that glues you together in a different way.&amp;quot; In contrast with Klum, who has such a close relationship with her folks, Seal had a more unconventional childhood. The son of a Nigerian mother and father who immigrated to England, Seal spent his first four years in foster care, was then reunited with his birth parents, and later lived with his stepmom. Consequently, Klum has said, &amp;quot;he wants us...to be the family that he didn&amp;#039;t have growing up.&amp;quot;  Becoming parents has deepened their gratitude. &amp;quot;As my husband would say, &amp;#039;How can you make a child and then think there is no God?&amp;#039; &amp;quot; Klum continues, awed by the blessing and responsibility of being a mom. &amp;quot;Giving birth is a huge spiritual thing. And what I put in the world \u2014 meaning our kids \u2014 I try to make as good as I can.&amp;quot; Big Family, Big Fun Klum could easily chatter for hours about her adorable kids, flicking through photos on her BlackBerry of Leni and Johan in Halloween costumes; Lou with birthday cupcake smeared all over her face; and Henry in Karate Kid cornrow braids, with an Afro, and, recently, with a shaved head like that of his idol, Kobe Bryant.  Leni has just passed through her princess period. &amp;quot;Everything had to be pink,&amp;quot; Klum says, &amp;quot;Now, she&amp;#039;s like, &amp;#039;Mmm, I like yellow and orange,&amp;#039; which is difficult because she doesn&amp;#039;t like her clothes anymore.&amp;quot; Klum calls her eldest &amp;quot;the lawyer type. She has wits and ways to manipulate anyone into whatever she wants. And you know what? Sometimes if she hasa good point, I let her have what she wants.&amp;quot;  Henry is very artistic. &amp;quot;He lives in his own world,&amp;quot; Mom says. That includes wearing gigantic green, fluffy dinosaur-feet slippers. &amp;quot;We went to dinner all dressed properly,&amp;quot; Klum says, laughing about the outing. &amp;quot;You can barely walk in those things, but for him, it&amp;#039;s not weird at all.&amp;quot; At 4, Johan is already a brainiac. &amp;quot;You show him any word, and he can read it,&amp;quot; Klum says. &amp;quot;He&amp;#039;s always the one with the book under the arm, and he always wants to know, &amp;#039;What is that?&amp;#039; He&amp;#039;s that &amp;#039;why-why-why&amp;#039; kid.&amp;quot; Baby Lou is also a thinker, says Klum. &amp;quot;She&amp;#039;s very observant. It&amp;#039;s probably quite a trip being born into a family where you have three older siblings. Boy, they pull her around. They don&amp;#039;t leave her out.&amp;quot; Sometimes, with four kids, the volume gets louder than the appreciative shriek of fans at a Seal concert. &amp;quot;Those moments happen all the time, and you just have to bruiser through it like a bulldozer,&amp;quot; Klum admits. &amp;quot;Your life changes completely when you have a kid, and when you have more it always takes away more of your old you.&amp;quot; But the new you, she says, is a more capable mother. &amp;quot;As a first-time parent, you worry more. Then you have your second baby and it&amp;#039;s the same pattern, so you are more at ease.&amp;quot;  Klum may be relaxed, but when it comes to discipline, she is not a pushover. She has well-established bedtime routines: Each of the three eldest owns a Kid&amp;#039;Sleep Classic Clock that has two images of a bunny on it. &amp;quot;When the picture of the bunny with a backpack on for school is lit up, then they can get up,&amp;quot; Klum says. &amp;quot;If the bunny is sleeping, you have to go lie back down again.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s one of her secrets for getting more shut-eye around her little early risers. Good manners are a must; sharing is required; sassing and ganging up are causes for a time-out. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t like having to change my tone for them to know I mean business,&amp;quot; Klum says. &amp;quot;But sometimes that&amp;#039;s what it takes, and someone has to stop playing, sit down, and have a little chat with me.&amp;quot; Sometimes her conversations with the kids involve tough questions, like when Johan came home from school and said he didn&amp;#039;t have any friends. &amp;quot;That is one of the most heart-wrenching things to hear, because all you want is for your kids to be healthy and happy.&amp;quot; She encouraged him to be friendly, and asked periodically if he&amp;#039;d made new friends. &amp;quot;Eventually he got through it,&amp;quot; Klum says, &amp;quot;and he actually ran for class president.&amp;quot; (Yes, his preschool has class presidents.) He lost the election, but on the evening of his defeat, Mom comforted him by making him &amp;quot;president of the family.&amp;quot; Turning tough experiences into triumphant ones is a tactic Klum highly recommends. Two years ago, when getting the first three kids off their pacifiers was a biggie, she and her husband made a ceremony out of it. &amp;quot;We had tons of nunus \u2014 that&amp;#039;s what they call them \u2014 and we went to the ocean and threw them in for the Nunu Fairy.&amp;quot; They took pictures, cried a little, and laughed. Of course, Klum says, the &amp;quot;nunus&amp;quot; kept washing back to shore. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m sure people were thinking, What&amp;#039;s with all these pacifiers?&amp;quot; Klum says, giggling.  The health-conscious Klum is vigilant about everything that goes into her kids&amp;#039; mouths. She insists on home cooking with fresh ingredients, nothing nuked in a microwave (except for her Starbucks when it gets cold), and everything as organic as possible. At her previous house, Klum tended a garden with lettuce, squash, beans, potatoes, and herbs. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s pretty Good Housekeeping right there,&amp;quot; she boasts, &amp;quot;and it was nice for the kids to see that they could actually grow and eat their own things.&amp;quot;  Sweets aren&amp;#039;t verboten, but the kids don&amp;#039;t ask for them often. Says Klum, &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;ll have honey with yogurt and brown sugar on oatmeal, and they can even occasionally have Cocoa Puffs for breakfast. I don&amp;#039;t want to be mean; I want them to have fun, too.&amp;quot;  Taking Care of Heidi When asked how she was able to maintain her model figure after her four nearly-back-to-back pregnancies, Klum shoots straight from her well-toned hip: &amp;quot;When you are a fit and healthy person to begin with, you most likely go back to what you were before,&amp;quot; she says. She put on around 45 pounds during each of her pregnancies, and since she&amp;#039;s spent almost three of the past six years struggling in and out of style-challenging maternity clothes, it&amp;#039;s hardly surprising that she has designed two maternity lines: Lavish, for A Pea in the Pod, and Loved, for Motherhood Maternity. Klum says that aside from hitting the blacktop when she&amp;#039;s in New York City filming Project Runway \u2014 &amp;quot;I ran 120 miles in seven weeks&amp;quot; \u2014 she doesn&amp;#039;t really have a fitness regime. She gets plenty of exercise running around, swimming, and getting on the trampoline with her kids. And though she has her own skin-care line, In An Instant, Klum says the only thing she really needs to feel she&amp;#039;s at her best is toothpaste. &amp;quot;Nasty teeth aren&amp;#039;t good,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I hate that feeling of having &amp;#039;little sweaters&amp;#039; on my teeth.&amp;quot; Her best advice for keeping a youthful appearance and the energy to get through the day is also the simplest: Get plenty of sleep. &amp;quot;If I don&amp;#039;t have plans with my husband, I go to bed right after the kids at 8:30.&amp;quot; (And, thanks to the bunny clocks, she knows she won&amp;#039;t be woken up by a wandering child at 4 A.M.) To manage everything, Klum has scheduling down to an art form. On her computer, a calendar is marked out for the entire year with color-coded entries: green for her commitments, red for her husband&amp;#039;s, and blue for the kids&amp;#039; activities.  As much as she likes to keep busy, Klum&amp;#039;s favorite datebook pages are the blank ones \u2014 weekends when there&amp;#039;s nothing on that calendar and she and her husband can hang out with the kids and read Dr. Seuss and Pinkalicious or watch animated movies. &amp;quot;I try to create a healthy balance in my life between juggling a thousand things and not having to do anything at all. We have days where every hour can be scheduled,&amp;quot; Klum says. &amp;quot;And then we have days where we let the children be the boss of the day. It&amp;#039;s fun when you don&amp;#039;t know where the day will go, and it teaches the kids to be spontaneous. Sometimes you have to plan not to make a plan.&amp;quot; Sounds like a plan. And it sounds like Heidi Klum just got her Mother&amp;#039;s Day plans all figured out. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/inspirational-stories/interviews/a18790/heidi-klum-motherhood-interview/>