''I get up in the morning and get the girls ready to take them to camp. I do a day wherever and usually get back before they go to bed,'' says Obama, who insists you call her Michelle.

This morning, before she headed to Florida, one of the campaign's biggest battle grounds, she had to fix the girls' hair for ''crazy-hair day'' at camp.

Once in a while she'll do an overnight trip, like this one, which involved another fundraiser after the Jungle Island event -- at the Miami Beach home of F.J. and Abigail Pollak, where guests, most of them former Hillary Clinton supporters, paid upwards of $5,000 each.

''I'll sleep over, but I'll be back before they get home tomorrow, so that way it feels like Mom just went to work,'' says Obama, who during an 18-minute conversation steers clear of politics and policy and focuses on family issues.

''I would love to use any platform that I have to bring more attention to the challenges families face just balancing it all,'' she says.

It's a struggle she understands, as she and her husband strive to raise grounded children while media exposure grows, and the Secret Service invades their lives. But how much harder would it be to give the kids a semblance of normalcy if they wind up in the White House?

''For us the basic focus of a 7- and 10-year-old remains key. . . . They are at every birthday party. We make sure we are at every parent-teacher conference. We don't miss pot lucks,'' Obama says.

So far the girls have been cool, even about the Secret Service.

``I worried about that at first. I explained this is for people who are high profile. These folks help keep us safe. This is how it will work, and this is how it will affect your life. With my kids, and probably with most kids, if you're honest about what to expect, and what happens fits their expectations, they trust what you are telling them.''

But is she ever afraid for her husband and her family?

``I don't live in fear. It's not useful.''

In October, Nancy Gilbert, a Boca Raton businesswoman whose husband Mark is on Barack's national finance committee, observed Michelle in action during four back-to-back fundraising events in London while making time to smooth out some homework drama back home.

''She sold me hook, line and sinker when I watched her having an interaction with her children,'' says Gilbert, who runs a tour company in Israel.

Obama's cellphone lost its signal in the middle of a call to the kids in Chicago, who were being cared for by her mother. Gilbert handed over her phone.

'It was something about finishing your homework or only getting to do something after you've finished your homework. She was in this hallway between events and resolved the issue for her kids and then went back to what she was doing seamlessly. As a working mom I could really relate. I had many times when I would say, `One moment, please.' ''

OTHER WOMEN

Janet Reno, attorney general under Bill Clinton, met Obama for the first time at Jungle Island.

''I thought she was sharp, bright, extremely personable. Her emphasis on family struck me as extremely important,'' says Reno, who had supported Hillary Clinton and is ''waiting to see'' how the campaign unfolds before she decides to back Barack actively.

University of Miami President Donna Shalala, Clinton's secretary of Health and Human Services, met Obama later in the evening at the Pollaks' party.

''It was my impression that it wasn't like somebody handed her a bunch of talking points. She spoke from the heart. You could tell she's highly intelligent and sophisticated but has a common touch. I was very impressed,'' says Shalala, who also supported Hillary.

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