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Michael Bublé on his growing family and being 'one of the kids': 'My poor wife will now have 5 children'

Welcome to So Mini Ways, Yahoo Life's parenting series on the joys and challenges of child rearing.

You'd be hard-pressed to find a happier guy in showbiz than Michael Bublé. Between his expanding family — in February he and wife Luisana Lopilato announced that they're expecting their fourth child — the success of his just-released album Higher and a buzzy new campaign for bubly sparkling water, the Canadian crooner just can't keep a smile off his face.

"I don't know that I'm ever gonna get over the fact that people have invited me into their lives, to be part of so many of their most important moments," Bublé, 46, tells Yahoo Life. "Moments living, making babies, driving in the car, parties, weddings, sometimes funerals, different holidays — I'm there. Can you imagine how that feels for me? I mean, I'm a son of a fisherman and I never thought I had a chance at this. And here I am 20 years later and I get to be connected to beautiful souls all over the world. ... I'm dumbfounded by all of it. And I really do appreciate it, I really do. I feel like it's a dream. I must be living in the matrix. This can't be happening."

Singer Michael Bublé opens up about life as a dad of (almost) four. (Photo: Getty; designed by Quinn Lemmers)
Singer Michael Bublé opens up about life as a dad of (almost) four. (Photo: Getty; designed by Quinn Lemmers)

In support of Higher, which he calls "really inspirational" and features original songs as well as a duet with Willie Nelson and covers of classics ranging from Bob Dylan to Barry White, Bublé will soon be heading out on tour. But he explains that he scales back his time out on the road out of respect for his family responsibilities.

"I am probably the most financially irresponsible tour act in the world," the "I'll Never Not Love You" singer says with a grin. "I'm one of the few guys who plays arenas and stadiums all over the world, but doesn't do more than three weeks because family's it for me — family's number one. I don't mind looking back later in my life and saying, 'Boy, I could have made way more money or been more famous or successful.' But what I cannot abide by is looking back and saying, 'Boy, I wish I would've spent more time with my kids. Boy, I wish I wouldn't have missed that. Boy, I wish I would've been a better father.' We've all seen that movie. That movie is almost every single musical biography that we ever see in our lives. And I've seen enough of them to learn the lesson, and I don't want that to be my story."

Married for 11 years, he and Lopilato — an Argentine actress and the inspiration (and video co-star) for 2009's "Haven't Met You Yet" — also work together on carving out their respective careers and family time.

"My wife and I are good partners," Bublé says. "She's my best buddy who I happen to be crazy about. And she's a movie star, so we do what any couple does. We try to look at our schedules and we try to be fair to each other and try to figure out a way for her to go and do her movie, and for me to take that time off and go be with her and the kids."

Raising a family with the Buenos Aires-born star has been "really beautiful," adds Bublé, whose kids call him "Papi."

"I'm so proud to be Canadian, but we're very conservative and we're courteous and everything runs sort of in [an orderly fashion]," the singer, who also has Italian and Croatian heritage, explains. "Argentinians are far freer and it's loose ... and you know what? It made for such a perfect mix. It was hard for me, culturally, at first to sort of deal with that, but I love how easygoing my wife is. She just loves watching them color outside of the lines. I think that mix of our cultures has been such a beautiful thing for my kids because I think they've taken the best of both worlds — and they're very different worlds."

Along with their sons Noah, 8, and Elias, 6, and daughter Vida, 3, the couple will soon welcome their fourth child — or, as the fun-loving Bublé puts it, their fifth.

"I'm one of the kids," he jokes. "My poor wife will now have five children because I think if they put a truth serum into my arm and asked me how old I was mentally, I would be about 17. So I have so much fun playing and using my imagination and creating. ... It just keeps you young, when you look at life through the eyes of your babies."

The kids also keep the four-time Grammy winner in check.

"My kids are my greatest critics because they're honest," he says. "And the reaction that I get is so harsh and real that, actually, it's a great barometer for me as to something working or not working."

They also appear to have inherited their parents' musical talents, though Bublé says that he and Lopilato — a former singer — haven't "ever pushed [it] upon them." Indeed, 8-year-old Noah has a co-writing credit on the lead single of his dad's new album, "Higher," after the boy pitched him some lyric ideas during bathtime.

"He said, 'Papi, I wrote a song,'" the proud dad shares. "I said, 'Go for it.' He said, 'When you go low and I go high ... ' And months later when I was writing with [singer, producer and songwriter] Ryan Tedder, I said, 'Ry, here's a little hook that my kid came up with.' And of course, Ryan Tedder is a genius and he took it and ran with it. ... It's a great tune. And now my kid has co-writing [credit]. How about that? Eight years old, and he's far more prolific than I'll ever be."

Noah is also a cancer survivor, having recovered following a diagnosis of a form of liver cancer called hepatoblastoma when he was just 3. "My family's been through it," Bublé says now. He points to one of the standards he's covered on Higher, Charlie Chaplin's "Smile."

"That song is about living hard and being crushed and being hurt and somehow fighting through that adversity and finding a way to smile through it," he notes.

Fittingly, that's also the message behind his new bubly campaign, which stresses the importance of finding silver linings from "bummer" moments. On Monday, April 18, the beverage brand will help fans who share their disappointing stories on social media find the "bubly side of life" and, as Bublé puts it, make lemonade out of lemons.

He credits fatherhood with helping him find those bright spots.

"[My kids] have this great sense of wonderment, and I think that's a really beautiful thing to have as a parent," he says. "And I think if that doesn't inspire you to get up and to go through tough times and to be grateful, nothing will."

—Video produced by Stacy Jackman.

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