While Mandy Moore is a woman of many talents, the actress-singer-songwriter didn't imagine adding amateur dermatologist to her list of titles.
And yet, when eldest son Gus, 2, developed what initially looked like a flare-up of his mild eczema this past July, she found herself enrolling at let-me-just-Google-that medical school. "When it wasn't going away and no creams and lotions and potions were helping, I was like, okay, well, is this some sort of contact dermatitis?" she recalled in an exclusive interview with E! News. She and husband Taylor Goldsmith then "went all around the yard and we're looking at certain things that maybe he touched."
When their search yielded nothing ("Taylor and I were like, no, he didn't get into anything. We're always watching him, and it's just on his legs, it's not on his stomach, it wasn't on his hands"), they made a trip to urgent care. And then a visit to the pediatrician. And then an appointment with a dermatologist for good measure.
"Finally it took going to the pediatric dermatologist where she immediately was like, that's what this is," the This Is Us alum said of learning her toddler had Gianotti-Crosti syndrome, a rash that covered his legs, feet and the back of his arms.
"And it was strange," continued the 39-year-old. "It's a virus, so it normally comes on the heels of him being sick. And I'm like, 'No, he's not been sick. He hasn't gotten a vaccine.' There was no sort of reaction, nothing. It was just a random thing."
This is parenting.
"It was a great lesson in having to just roll with the punches as parents and recognize, okay, now we know what it is, which is everything," said Moore, who will celebrate youngest son Ozzie's first birthday Oct. 20. "Having the knowledge of what something is, how you can help him find relief, and then you just move on with your life."
The first week was admittedly rough. "He was just really uncomfortable," she noted. "He wasn't sleeping, because he was so itchy. And that just is the worst as a parent. He's in the car, and he's like, 'Itchy Mom, itchy.'"
They cycled through endless rounds of Benadryl, some cream and a few tricks the "Crush" singer uncovered by delving into parenting message boards and the slew of DMs she received from others in the same uncomfortable boat. But ultimately, she said, "It just had to run its course."
These days, the preschooler is fully recovered. "If he has shorts on or he's running around in his underwear, you see the faint redness of it still on the back of his legs," she shared, "but it's not a rash. It's not raised anymore."
As for Mom and Dad, they've found relief as well.
The key was to "recognize that it's all fleeting," Moore explained. "Knowing, okay, plenty of people have been in this position. We're all going to get through it. There are some uncomfortable days, but there will be so many more of those in every different aspect of life. Just breathing and trying to look at the bigger picture of this is just one more experience to have under your belt that will help you the next time you encounter something like this."
Because even with the odd bad stretch and the particular brand of exhaustion that comes with that two-under-3 life, motherhood is like sugar to the singer's heart.
"I know that it's subject to change, and it already has fluctuated over the years, but I am very much the preferred parent right now, and I'm soaking that in," admitted Moore. "I love it."
At the moment, the Tangled actress is still wonderin' and wonderin' when her sons might realize they're being raised by Rapunzel. "We're starting to go down the Disney cannon and watch certain things," she said of Gus. But when it comes to her 2010 animated film and other projects, "He can't make the correlation that it's me."
He has developed quite the ear for music, though, with Mom and Dad's songs featuring heavily into his bedtime routine.
Gus is particularly partial to "All Your Favorite Bands," a track Goldsmith, 38, sings with his folk rock band Dawes. "I think because it mentions french fries in the first line," said Moore. "So he's like, 'French fries song.'"
Also on request is Moore's "Four Moons." (Fun fact: Goldsmith and a baby Gus appear in the music video, but the toddler is convinced it's actually his little brother because "He thinks every baby is Ozzie," said Moore.)
So, after their bedtime book, "We sing that to him every day and it's very sweet," said Moore. "Sometimes I'll be listening through the wall, because our room is right next to Gus' room, and I'll hear my husband singing the song to him. And I'm like, we wrote that song together and now you're singing it to our son."
A core memory she intends to hold onto the rest of her life, "I have to just imprint this on my brain," she said, "so I can remember it when they get older."
Thankfully she has tangible evidence of other parenting highlights, with both of her boys modeling for her fall collaboration with Gymboree.
Though they're "very much jeans and t-shirt guys" thanks to Los Angeles' year-round pleasant temps, her sons served as inspiration for the latest Mandy Moore x Gymboree release that's chock full of outfits ready-made for holiday card-worthy photos.
And beyond making them look adorable AF, there's just something about a plaid button-down or vest that seems to turn her little ones into tiny gentlemen. "I really feel like they have a different energy when they're wearing something that feels special and out of the norm," Moore explained. "They know that it's special that we're going to take a picture and we're all together. And Gus is pointing out what Ozzie's wearing and Ozzie's looking at Mom and Dad. We're all matching. It's so much fun."
And while the Princess Diaries alum knows life's only going to get crazier with two on the move ("We're definitely nearing the walking stage," she said of catching Ozzie standing in the middle of his crib at two in the morning), she also knows it's going to be a journey to remember.
For her, the wild pendulum swings of parenting can best be explained with one relatable anecdote.
While out with her in-laws this summer, Gus turned to her and "he's like, 'Mama, I love you,'" she detailed. "And he gave me the biggest hug." Moments later, though, "just out of nowhere he went and smacked me across the face," Moore revealed.
It didn't hurt, she said, but it was rather out of character for her "sweet" boy. "I was so startled and he was so startled, too," she continued. "He looked at me like, I don't know why I just did that and then he started crying. And I was like, 'It's okay, Buddy. It's okay.' And then he ran away. But it's that dichotomy of literally 20 seconds before he was hugging, 'I love you, Mama,' kiss me on the lips. And then he smacked me across the face."
Such is life with toddlers. There are books to read, techniques to try and wisdom to impart, and yet, she noted, "I feel like on any given day, something may be the key and then that won't work the next day. But just trying to breathe and not take it personally is what I try to do."
Nearly three years in, she added, "every day is a new challenge."
But at least, in the hardest of times, there's Google.
—Reporting by Nikaline McCarley