Ali Larter: It's 'Totally Impossible' to Be the Perfect Mom

Ali Larter is too blessed to be stressed.

The 39-year-old actress — and mother to 4½-year-old son Theodore Hayes and 5-month-old daughter Vivienne Margaret — is connected with her two children and loving life more than ever.

“My son is just a rambunctious, brilliant, funny dude and my daughter is a sweet, little angel and that’s today,” Larter told PEOPLE at the PopChips BBQ for the Fire Department of New York on Wednesday.

“Tomorrow, I’ll probably have a terror and a daughter that cries all night, but today is good, so I’m celebrating today!”

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Just as she knows things can always take a quick turn, Larter never tries to strive for perfection.

“I just think it’s totally impossible,” she shares. “I’m just doing the best I can with each thing that I’m doing at the moment.”

Often times, she adds, finding a happy medium means following her own heart — and steering clear of the constant criticism that comes along with parenthood.

“I think there’s too much pressure put on mothers these days about no caffeine and no wine,” Larter explains. “It makes you so stressed out and I think that one of the joys about having my second [child] is that I’ve really relaxed up on myself.”

And Larter has no problem laughing at the occasional mommy mishap, including an incident during a recent ice cream party.

“I left [the ice cream] outside for 20 minutes and by the time I started scooping it for everyone, it was completely melted,” she recalls.

“I said, ‘You know, whatever! Let’s do milkshakes!’ So everyone had milkshakes,” she shares. “It’s like you take something that turns into disaster and you turn it around to make it a fun adventure.”

— Megan Kuharich