beauty and beauty: Elisabeth Röhm Blogs: My Child's First Crush

Elisabeth Röhm , best known for her roles as Serena on Law & Order and Kate on Angel, has been blogging for PEOPLE.com for over two years now.

The actress, 40, currently plays Taylor on The Client List, and will next star in David O. Russell’s latest film, American Hustle, to be released Christmas Day.

Her book, Baby Steps: Having the Child I Always Wanted (Just Not As I Expected), was released in April.

She can be found on Facebook, Google + and on Twitter @ElisabethRohm.

In her latest blog, Röhm — mom to 5-year-old Easton August with fiancé Ron Anthony — works her way through her daughter’s zing phase.

Elisabeth Rohm Blog

EASTON LINING UP FOR A SIGNED COPY OF MY BOOK – Courtesy Elisabeth Rohm

Zing! Those four magic letters. Did you ever see Hotel Transylvania ? The film explores the zing subject quite wonderfully. (It’s a great movie by the way! We’ve seen it at least 30 times. We’re loyal like that in my family.)

Same thing goes for what we fondly refer to now as “grownup movies” since everything in our lives now is skewed through the eyes of a little tyke. It used to be we just called movies, movies. Now things these days are seen through a PG point of view.

Since I spend most of my time with a five-year-old, I’m up on all the cool kid stuff, movies included. I’m fully in the loop as they say.

And yet, perhaps I missed the chapter in What to Expect on when your child starts zinging.

I don’t know if it’s the whole princess movie thing, but marriage and whom Easton will be marrying is a big subject in our house these days. She colors in her coloring book humming along to the age ole’ classic, “Here comes the bride, all dressed in white.” I think it goes something like that as I have not been personally exposed to its melody seeing as Ron and I are indeed unmarried and living in sin.

So, there is my sweet Easton talking about marrying her fellow schoolmate Zach and singing THE song. And suddenly my memory comes flashing back of meeting Brian Moonan on the playground at 5 years old.

He made my heart swoon, I think, as he’d blow the dirty trodden sand off of a plastic hair barrette and casually give it to me as his blond hair would glisten in the sunlight. From there it grew to us calling each other quite frequently on the phone to say not a whole heck of a lot.

Then there was Grant Sharpe, who I first saw at Sunday school. We were also in the choir together. His auburn hair shimmered too in the proverbial sunlight as he tossed his locks out of his eyes. Zing!

Elisabeth Rohm Blog

Zinging at camp – Courtesy Elisabeth Rohm

That whole zinging thing is happening with these little five-year-olds. They are also crushing on the grownups and there are a lot of “I love yous” flying around. So we’re having to talk about all of that too.

“I love you is special and saved for your family and best friends.” Not just the latest zing in the playground. And certainly not for Mommy’s friend who runs the best Italian restaurant in Boston. I mean, seriously.

But then I recall when I met Alex at Baskin-Robbins oh so many years ago and I’d order my bubble gum ice cream with moonbeams in my eyes as if I was talking to Elvis or Justin Bieber or, in my case these days, it would be Robin Thicke.

Towering over me, he’d step out from behind the glass ice cream freezers and personally hand me my cup of frozen pink ice cream with chunks of gum or my other favorite, rainbow sherbet, and flash his pearly whites as he’d bend down and say, “I’m gonna put a brick on my head and wait for you to grow up, Lis.”

And so I was hooked and had to go to Baskin-Robbins every day — or at least as much as my mom would allow — just so I could bask in his glow for five minutes.

And so this was exactly what happened in Boston when we were in town filming for a month. One night we went to a local place in the North End where Easton met a ZING! From that moment forth we had to eat there most every night.

For the rest of her life she will remember Carmelina’s as if it was glowing with pink neon lights in the shape of a heart. The owner of this awesome eatery in Little Italy, aptly named Damien, had her at hello. “Whatever you want,” he crooned in a Boston/Italian accent.

That was it. He suddenly became beloved, like her grandparents who never enforce anything. First it was the balloon art. Not only did he get her one carefully wound flower with pink petals and a bright green stem, but each time she asked for another one, he happily crossed the street to answer each request.

Elisabeth Rohm Blog

CLIMBING TREES – Courtesy Elisabeth Rohm

We all wish our guys would hop to like this fine gentleman did. By the time we left dinner she had a whooping amount of balloon art, one more complicated than the other, climaxing in a towering hat of balloons made just for Easton and directed by Damien. Oh, and then he actually wore the hat around his restaurant, proudly claiming how much he loved his daughter and missed these younger years where they actually want to talk to you and sit on your lap and kiss and hug.

Then came the gelato, reminding me of those carefree days at Baskin-Robbins. Not only did he give her two flavors, but he went out of his own restaurant during the dinner shift to his all-time favorite gelato shop in the North End to please her taste buds.

What a guy. Again I say, if only our guys could get the memo from Damien. Perhaps he should teach a weekend training course on doting and how to “get the girl.”

“When I grow up I’m going to marry Daddy,” Easton said yesterday. “When you grow up, Daddy will still be your Daddy,” I corrected. “Really?” “Really.”

“I’ll always be your baby?” she asked sweetly. “You’ll always be my baby, even when you’re all grown up and have your own family.”

This is where we are at these days. Love and marriage. I’m waiting for the next question to be, “When are you and Daddy getting married?” I’m getting prepared.

All of this growing up stuff makes me think about how conflicted we are with our age. When we are little we want to grow up fast and as we get older we wish we were younger. All these major life lessons and subjects get all the more complicated as our little ones embrace, battle and explore growing up.

And all that zinging stuff is even more complicated. We know that all too well, right ladies? If only we could all personally call the brilliant matchmaker Patti Stanger to help us find a nice fellow who can afford to buy us that ice cream cone and then some. (Or perhaps just check out Pattiknows.com. I find her site to be full of great advice.)

The other day Easton said she did want to marry Zach, but that he wanted to marry Alessandra. She said, “I need to find someone who wants to marry me too, but there isn’t anyone and Tristan bothers me. We argue.” My heart aches thinking about all of this and Easton’s ultimate quest for love.

Elisabeth Rohm Blog

BALLOON HATS WITH DAMIEN – Courtesy Elisabeth Rohm