Soap opera star Alison Sweeney reveals the best parenting advice she ever got, how she gets her kid to eat his veggies, and what she considers the "best invention ever."

As the naughty but lovable young scamp, Sami Brady, on Days of our Lives, Alison Sweeney has spent the past 15 years literally growing up in front of our eyes. Now, the 32-year-old actress has a growing family of her own: She's married to California Highway Patrol officer, Dave Sanov, with whom she has a 3-year-old son Ben, and is currently pregnant with her second, a girl, due in early 2009. On top of it all, Sweeney also hosts the reality series The Biggest Loser, which kick-starts its new season September 16.

Momtourage caught up with the busy mom in New York's bustling Times Square, where Sweeney hosted an auction of celeb-donated jeans for Clothes Off Our Back, which benefits children's charities. While hundreds of pairs of jeans and shirts dangled from giant clotheslines above NYC's honking cabs and gawking tourists, Sweeney revealed how she balances a full plate.

Momtourage: For a busy working mom like you, you've got to have a momtourage. Who are the people you rely on for support as a parent?
Alison Sweeney: Number one would be my husband. It's truly a 50-50 partnership; we are team parents. It makes a huge difference—for us, for our relationship as husband and wife, for Ben. We're lucky that way. Beyond that, it's family and my close friends, who consider visiting Ben and talking to him on the phone as important as talking to me. "Is Ben there? Can I say hi?" Ben knows all Mommy's friends. And he comes to the set of Days with me. All my friends from work know and love him. He has a million "aunts" and "uncles" who have seen him since he was a baby. We're a big family.

What's the best parenting advice you've ever received?
When I was having my first child, someone—and I'm sad to say I don't remember who —said to imagine that I already had a second, older child. So if your infant starts crying, do you drop everything—say, stop taking care of the 3-year-old who also needs you—and race to the newborn's side? No. If you go at your first child like you already have one, it gives you that breath to be like, "The baby is going to be okay. Life is not going to end." Having approached raising my first child like that, I'm not as nervous now that I'm having my second.

Who do you turn to when you need advice?
I talk to my costars a lot: Lauren Koslow, Missy Reeves and Mary Beth Evans, who all have kids. As actors, we're in a unique situation. So I turn to them for things like, "Even if you can afford to buy your child an iPod, should you? At what age is it appropriate to get them a cell phone?" I'm not comfortable with my child having a TV in his room because I didn't have one as a kid. So I ask what do they do.

Then I also want to know what to do when a fan approaches and my son gets envious. Or when he sees me on TV. How do I explain that and make it normal? That's the most important thing to me. I don't want my child to have some weird, abnormal upbringing. I want him to feel like his life is normal, that his school is normal and his mommy and daddy just go to work. I don't want him surrounded by—and I hate to use Hollywood as a derogatory term—but I just want him to be a happy, healthy, well-adjusted kid.

As a health and fitness advocate, how does nutrition factor into your parenting?
I talk to Bob [Harper] and Jillian [Michaels] from The Biggest Loser about this all the time: "How do I help my son eat right? How do I help him develop a healthy metabolism?" I was raised with the "eat everything on your plate" mentality. That's not necessarily the right thing either. I'm not a big believer of sneaking vegetables into other foods. If I cook vegetables, Ben will eat them. Why? Because I said so. I'm the parent, he's the child and that's how it unfolds. I'm a little old-fashioned that way. Luckily, my husband and I think along the same lines.

How do you and your husband find time for yourselves as a couple?

It's an effort! Dave and I include Ben in as much stuff as we can, but our relationship is important so we have to strike the right balance. So we definitely go on dates: We go to movies together, we go to events together. We just make the effort.

Since you're such a busy working mom, was there a lot to consider before deciding to have another child?
Absolutely. You don't want to walk into a decision like that willy-nilly It's a big choice. But we always wanted a sibling for our son, because that's what we know: I have two brothers, my husband has a sister. Yes, we're very busy, but we're always going to be busy, so we're always going to have an excuse. Still, we felt like it was the right time for us to give it a shot and it worked out. We're so excited.

What do you do to find me-time?
Alison: I love to read. So last Christmas, to treat myself, I bought the Amazon Kindle [wireless reading device]. It's the best thing I ever did. I take it with me everywhere -- it's in my purse right now. I can read books, newspapers, magazines. I have all my maternity books on there. It's the best invention ever. I love it.