Liv Tyler talks pregnancy, career - and flossing! - in SELF

Click below for the interview highlights.

I loved being pregnant so much, and experiencing a child growing in your body just gives you such a newfound respect for the human body. It's just fascinating. It gives you this sense and this feeling of timelessness, this sort of evolution of man and what a miracle it is that you get pregnant at all. It's not like you take a special pill and this pill makes the baby grow. The baby just grows, without your even doing anything but breathing and sleeping and eating. That is an amazing feeling. You feel so proud of your body.

On choosing not to find out the sex:

We didn't find out if Milo was a girl or a boy. At first I think I wanted to find out but Roy  didn't want to and I'm really grateful that we didn't, because there's such a beauty in the mystery, in the awe of not knowing. It's the greatest surprise ever.

On parenting a boy:

Milo loves animals. And I want to teach him to feel strong and manly and...you know! It's funny, it's like, wow, I have a son. This is my responsibility now, to teach him how to be a man. I feel like the dynamic between gender -- male and female -- has changed so much and I want to help teach him how to be able to do everything. To cook and sew and also mow the lawn and chop down trees. I want him to learn and know everything.

It's hard as a woman to be working so much all the time and out in the world and then also really wanting to be a mother and wanting to do all those things around the house for your child. It's really overwhelming, especially when your child is young.   

My dream my whole life was to be a mother, not to have a career or be famous. I love my job and care a lot about what I do and I get a lot of pleasure from acting, but I want to be able to be home and be [Milo's] mother. I don't want somebody else raising him.  

I've been obsessed with real estate. I really want to live in the country, so I was trying to think of a way that I could move to the country full time and have a crash pad here in New York. But it's not realistic. So now I've decided to stay in my house and get a house in the country. It took me years to come to that conclusion. I had too many options almost. I know that sounds so boring!

I want the best environment for Milo. I really cherish the years that I had growing up in Maine and just being in nature and having that feeling of being free and making up your own games and stories and playing by yourself in the grass and in the woods. You don't get that in New York.

[By] either calling a friend to yap, like, "Oh my God, blah blah blah," Or just being with Milo. Whenever I'm stressed out about anything and I walk in the door and I see his face and he's like "Mommy!" And he runs into my arms. And I like turning my phone off and just being really present in the moment with him. Taking a bubble bath. Or playing with toys and getting lost in their world. Create stories.

I floss every day. My dad taught me to floss when I was really young. He was like, "Smell the floss" after I flossed. Ugh, it was the most disgusting thing! Seriously, if you try it, you'll never not floss again!

Source: SELF, June issue; Photo by Flynet.