Serena Williamshas a lot on her plate and becoming a mom has made things even busier, but there’s one thing she’s not willing to compromise on: time with her daughterAlexis Olympia.
And now, just five months away from Olympia’s second birthday, the 37-year-old tennis star tells PEOPLE exclusively that her perspective still hasn’t changed, despite facing challenges along the way.
“I’m a super hands-on mom. I am with her every day since she was born. We haven’t spent a day apart,” Williams reveals. “Despite my best efforts to be like, ‘Oh, I’ll take her with me’ … It’s been really trying. Thisis a whole new territory for me.”
“It’s definitely not easy, and I’m juggling more than I’m used to,” Williams adds of her busy schedule. “I think the most crazy part is now I’m adding ‘mom’ to that, and that has been really hard.”
Serena Williams and Olympia.Pampers
For the first-time mother, who recently partnered withPampersto help launch their newCruisers 360 FIT diapers, watching Olympia grow up has been both a blessing and a learning experience.
“My mom just told me that [Olympia] is gonna be in a ‘Terrible Two’ phase and she’s like, ‘It’s gonna be fun for you’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what does that mean?’ ” says Williams. “[Olympia] isn’t quite there yet, but she definitelyfalls on the floor and has fits andshe doesn’t understand. I’m learning a lot about kids and it’s really amazing.”
Though Olympia may go through spurts of misbehaving like most toddlers, the athlete arguesthat the “Terrible Twos”aren’t all that terrible and explains why she actually sympathizes with her daughter during those outbursts.
“They’re just kids who can’t really communicate and they don’t know how to — they’re so close and they want you to understand what they’re saying,” she explains. “And you don’t get what they’re saying, and then they fall on the ground and they don’t know what else to do.”
Serena Williams/Instagram
“I feel sorry for them because I’m like, ‘I’m trying to understand what you’re saying’ and they literally learn our whole language — they learn everything from scratch — and we don’t learn their language, they learn ours,” she continues. “It’s a pretty amazing thing to me. I’m learning a lot.”
This isn’t the first time that Williams has opened up about her incredibly close bond with her daughter. The mom of one previously revealed in July that shehadn’t spent a single day apartfrom Olympia since giving birth to her.
The famed tennis champion also sharedan adorable photoof a then-10-month-old Olympia sound asleep on her chest during a plane ride.
RELATED VIDEO:Serena WilliamsShares Sweet Snap of Alexis Olympia Days After Withdrawing from Australian Open
“She took her first steps … I was training and missed it,” thesports star wrote on Twitter, adding that she “cried” after learning the news.
As Olympia has gotten older, Williams has relished in the moments with her daughter, many of which have been shared on their respective social media accounts. (That’s right — Olympia has herown Instagram feed!)
Opening up on her Instagram Story about what inspired the party, Williams (who is a Jehovah’s Witness) said, “I wanted to just do something funbecause we don’t do birthdays.”
Williams previously revealed why she and Ohanian, 35, don’t celebrate birthdays — namely,due to their faith— saying at a press conference last August shortly before her daughter turned 1, “Olympia doesn’t celebrate birthdays. We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses, so we don’t do that.”
According to theofficial websitefor Jehovah’s Witnesses, followers of the church don’t believe in celebrating birthdays “because we believe that such celebrations displease God.”
source: people.com
