Tori Spelling Shares 17 Secrets About Life With Kids

As I turn onto Tori Spelling's street in a nice-but-nothing-crazy-extravagant suburb of Los Angeles, I wonder if I'm in the right place. The tree-lined road seems so, well, normal. No over-the-top mansions or armed guards at the gate. Just a nice terra-cotta home with her signature Old Hollywood glamour decor (blue plush-velvet ottoman, 1940s-style sofa, mirrored cabinets, and black-and-white family pictures in just about every room). Her husband, actor Dean McDermott, opens the door in a T-shirt and shorts, a half-smeared bagel for their son, Liam, in hand. He's gorgeous, I can't lie. Even better looking in person than on TV. But he's easily overshadowed by their 3-year-old daughter, Stella, who walks right up to me with her arms stretched high, asking me to pick her up. She's breathtakingly sweet and half-dressed in the Shirley Temple costume we've custom-made for her big Halloween photo shoot.

I spend the next hour in the kids' playroom, talking about Hello Kitty (Stella has at least three versions of her, as far as I can see). Liam, 4, is the ringleader. He's keeping us on point as to topics of conversation. First up, the family's pet goats. They're outside but keep rubbing their noses on the French doors that lead from the playroom to the backyard, where a trampoline becomes too tempting to pass up in another hour or so.