NEWSMatthew Settle Babies ‘Gossip Girl’ Cast, But Pets Take Work
Sept. 29 2009, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
Watch out, Gossip Girl cast. Blake Lively, Penn Badgely, Leighton Meester, Sebastian Stan, Ed Westwick, Jessica Szohr, Taylor Momsen and Chace Crawford may soon be helping out with Matthew Settle’s six-month-old daughter, Aven.
“I’m going to make all the kids change her diaper just so they can get experience,” he says.
The hands-on dad is already a whiz.
“I’m really good,” Matthew, 40, says. “I’m an expert. We have a song. sings ‘Diaper girl, diaper girl, diaper girl in a diaper world. ends singing/commercial voice Diaper girl! Diapers not included.’ It makes her laugh every time.”
While the Gossip Girl cast knows how to “baby” a baby, Matthew and wife Naama found their cat Moby and dogs Jackie O and Zoe, had some adjusting to do when the new baby arrived.
“Jackie O wouldn’t look at her,” Matthew confesses during a Humane Society of NYC event. “She wouldn’t acknowledge her. Sometimes we had to make sure she didn’t step over her, whereas the other dog was very nurturing in a mammalian way.”
He admits the baby has “immensely” changed his relationship with Naama, whom he wed in 2006.
“Having a kid is unifying for your head,” he tells me. “What that feels like is it’s like you have a Mac, but you’ve never used all the stuff on it. And now you’re using all the software. That’s changed us because you don’t get a lot of sleep at times, you have to learn new ways to communicate and all that stuff. Plus, you have this new love in your life, so your love increases incredibly. It’s trying to not be able to get so much sleep, but I have a really great wife, so that’s been really good.”
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Lil’ Aven is a mix of her parents. “She’s a perfect cross between both of us. Hopefully, she gets my wife’s sanity and a little bit of my craziness.”
He shares a precious moment.
“We took her to her to socialize around other babies. We went to Gymboree. At first, she was scared and crying, and all the clapping and people singing … ‘I don’t know what to do! This is new’ … and by the end of it, she was wanting to giggle and stand up and wanted all the babies to play with her. She was a little bit scared, but now she’s ready to play. She gets in the mirror with all the other kids and she grabs the balls. She’s always precious – she’s adorable.”
Here’s a photo of Leighton and I.
Catch Matthew on Gossip Girl, airing Mondays at 9pm on CW.
