Christa Renee for PEOPLE for use on CBB

As Stanford Blatch, Carrie Bradshaw’s gay confidant on Sex and the City, Willie Garson was always unlucky in love.

But that all changed the day the actor, whose paternal clock had begun ticking loudly, met the boy who would become his son.

Attending an L.A. adoption fair in Oct. 2008, Willie spotted a vivacious 7-year-old named Nathen.

“He has a spark. He was balancing himself on a curb, and I was like, ‘That’s my kid,’” says Willie. “I knew it right then.”

Now everyone does. After more than a year of screenings and paperwork, Nathen, now 8, was officially deemed Willie’s son in January.

While Willie’s career is soaring — he stars in the hit USA drama White Collar and appears in this summer’s Sex and the City movie sequel — it’s clear that his new family life is what’s keeping the actor, 46, in a constant state of bliss.

Says a beaming Willie: “It couldn’t have gone any better.”

More from the article and additional photos below!

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In a perfect world, Willie imagined he would get married and start a family. But three years ago, realizing he was no closer to finding the woman of his dreams, “I just reached a point of, ‘What am I waiting for?’” he says. “I don’t care if I ever get married, but if I never have a kid?”

So Willie contacted the Alliance for Children’s Rights, a kids’ advocacy group in L.A., and the Westside Children’s Center, who guided him through the adoption process.

“Most people want infants,” says Willie, “but I fell in love with Nathen.”

After the adoption fair, Willie and Nathen bonded over several months of supervised play visits and sleepovers. Nathen moved into Willie’s three-bedroom L.A. home in Feb. 2009, and when the adoption was finalized in Jan., they celebrated at famed Hollywood eatery Musso & Frank Grill.

“We wore suits and we split a steak, and Manny the waiter did magic tricks,” Willie says.

Now in the third grade, Nathen has settled comfortably into family life. “I like to play with Willie on the Wii and give him kisses and hugs,” says Nathen with a squeal. “He is the best dad ever.”

He’s even showing signs of following in Dad’s footsteps by recently acting in his first school play, Grease. “He played Doody,” says the proud papa. “It was the finest production of Grease in history.”

While Willie is loving every minute of being a dad, he’s already dreading the day when Nathen won’t need him anymore. Some nights, when Nathen can’t sleep, “he comes to my room and I say, ‘Nathen, in four years you’re not going to want to talk to me.’ And he says, ‘No, Dad, I’m always going to want to hug and kiss you.’”

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Source: PEOPLE; March 15th issue

– Monica Rizzo

Filed under: Adoption, Dads, Exclusive, Kids, Main, Parenting

Douglas Friedman for PEOPLE for use on CBB

It would seem as if Tom Colicchio has everything a man could want.

There’s his business empire, which includes eight restaurants and the ‘wichcraft chain of sandwich shops, not to mention his role as head judge on TV’s Top Chef.

And when he comes home at the end of the day, it’s to a duplex loft in lower Manhattan, which he shares with his wife and two sons.

But there is one thing, Tom says, that he still longs for. “It’s hard to get everything done,” he says, “so a 36-hour day would be great!”

If Tom, 47, is feeling “dead tired” lately, it’s with good reason.

In August he and his wife of eight years, Lori Silverbush, 40, a filmmaker, welcomed son Luka Bodhi — just as Tom was preparing to launch his latest restaurant, Colicchio & Sons (which opened in January in New York City).

But it turns out the man known for being a tough critic on TV is a “mushy teddy bear” when it comes to family, splitting parenting duties 50-50, Lori says.

“I’m my own boss, so I can build my own schedule around the baby,” Tom explains. “Luka and I spend mornings together. We sit on the couch and play guitar.”

Adds Lori, “He’s not one of those dads where you worry he’s going to bathe the baby in boiling water. He’s got it under control.”

Click below to learn about elder son Dante’s scary arrival in 1993, and to see another photo.

Douglas Friedman for PEOPLE for use on CBB

That’s because Tom’s first go-round with fatherhood prepared him to deal with any parenting emergency. In 1993 Tom and his then-girlfriend, who was pregnant, learned that the baby was in distress; after an emergency c-section, their son Dante arrived — nearly two months premature and weighing only 2 lbs., 5 oz.

Dante spent two months in the hospital before coming home, and even then, “the doctors came to us and said he might be blind,” Tom recalls.

Today, Dante is a healthy 16-year-old and “great big brother,” Tom says. “The best thing about having a teenager and a baby: no sibling rivalry!”

“He’s a good kid. I was pretty wild growing up — thank God he’s not! Dante and I spend a lot of time just hanging out, watching dumb videos online, playing Xbox. And Luka is content to sit there on my lap, watching us.”

Despite this brotherly bonding — not to mention the restaurant he named after his boys — Tom insists he isn’t dreaming of his sons taking over the family business something. Instead his real hope as a father “is to raise children who go out in the world,” he says, “and do the right thing.”

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Source: PEOPLE; March 8th issue

– Liza Hamm

Filed under: Babies, Dads, Exclusive, Kids, Main, Parenting, Top News