Yeah, we’ll see how Sandler does with his first 50 diapers

Adam Sandler smiles when he thinks back to his role as the reluctant father in the 1999 wacky comedy “Big Daddy.”

Now, after playing a perfect dad to two children in his new film “Spanglish,” he’s itching to give a try for real.

“I just recently started trying and I’m doing the best I can,” Sandler cracks in his best little boy voice. “It feels good to try. But playing a father, well, I’m getting a little older and I do want that lifestyle. I do want children. I study dads more.”

A little more than a year ago, he married former model Jackie Titone, whom he met doing “Big Daddy” and who had small roles in his films “50 First Dates,” “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “Little Nicky” and “Eight Crazy Nights.”

During family reunions, the 38-year-old Sandler watched his brother with his two children and wants a life like that.

“This character (in ‘Spanglish’) feels so much like my brother – he has two children, he has a wife,” Sandler says. “He chooses to stay in New Hampshire because he wants his kids to grow up in the school they started with. He is his family’s hero.”

In “Spanglish,” Sandler plays a restaurant owner whose wife (Tea Leoni) is a bit manic and harsh on their two kids, an overweight girl and a meek boy.

The couple live with his alcoholic mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman) and hire a maid who speaks no English (Paz Vega) and has a daughter. Temptation arises as his marriage seems to be falling apart, but it’s up to Sandler to keep them all together.

He doesn’t speak Spanish well, but says, “Paz taught me a few words that, if people weren’t nice to me, I could tell them a few things.”

He also doesn’t cook for himself like his character does. But thanks to a chef who was a consultant on the set, he learned how to make a mean BLT sandwich.

Sandler acknowledges that it’s his most grown-up role to date. After four years on “Saturday Night Live” in the early 1990s, he became a box office success with hits such as “Billy Madison,” “Happy Gilmore,” “The Wedding Singer,” “Anger Management” and “The Waterboy.” Each time he seemed to play the same immature geek.

But after surprising audiences with his serious romantic role in “Punch-Drunk Love” in 2002, he decided to grow up a bit in both his roles and in his life.

When Oscar-winning director James L. Brooks (“As Good As it Gets,” “Terms of Endearment”) wrote the part of a serious dad for him, Sandler jumped at the chance to do something different.

“I loved his movies, every one he’s done,” gushes Sandler. “So when he wrote a movie and he wanted me to be in it, I was extremely excited but, in my head I didn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m gonna run away from my other stuff.’ “

Expect Sandler to be wacky again; he’s next working on a movie about a universal remote control that takes over his life, titled “Click.”

The birthday bunch

Actress Cicely Tyson is 71. Singer Maurice White (Earth, Wind and Fire) is 63. Actor Mike Lookinland (“The Brady Bunch”) is 44. Actress Jennifer Beals is 41. Actor Robert McNaughton is 38. Actress Kristy Swanson is 35. Actress Alyssa Milano is 32. Actor Jake Gyllenhall is 24. Actress Marla Sokoloff (“The Practice”) is 24.