Chris Pratt on Sweet Morning Routine and Milestones with Daughter Lyla: 'She's Such a Wiggle Worm'

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Chris Pratt can't get enough of his snuggle time with 10-month-old daughter Lyla.

The Tomorrow War star, 41, says he and little Lyla, his daughter with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, 31, have "special time" together in the morning, during which the actor recently discovered a secret soothing technique.

"She's such a little wiggle worm," Pratt tells PEOPLE. "The 20 minutes before I go to work is like our special time. And we sit out on this little chair or this little couch thing on the balcony, in front of the fireplace and there's this little heater, and we have our time together. It's like kid time. She's always wiggling around and you have to distract her with the toy. She doesn't want to just cuddle yet."

Pratt says Lyla has started teething and has been extra wiggly, but on a recent morning during their "special time," he learned a new way to help relax her.

"There's this little rubber comb thing that she chews on, it helps soothe her gums," he explains. "I just started brushing her hair with it. And I realized like, 'Oh, she's going to love to go to the spa when she grows.' I could see her just relax into my lap. It's kind of the first time in her life that I've ever been able to just have her really relaxing on my lap. I combed her hair for like 15 straight minutes. The only other time she's really ever done that is when she's peeing on me. So she'll like zone out and I'm like, 'There you go there, there you go calming down. Okay, you're peeing, that's why you stopped wiggling.' And so we had a really nice moment this morning."

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Chris Pratt/Instagram

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Parenthood plays a big role in Pratt's upcoming action thriller, The Tomorrow War, which required him to tap into his own family history.

"We focus a lot on the parent and child relationship," says the actor, who is also dad to Jack, 8½, with ex Anna Faris. "My character is a father and a husband and he has a contentious relationship with his father. I think it's impossible for me to do these types of roles without diving into some of the turmoil of my own relationships in life. And I think this is a film about redemption and second chances and coming to grips with the fact that maybe you're a lot more like your father than you've ever realized. And finding grace and forgiveness for your father and yourself at the same time in those moments."

Pratt says he feels there is "a natural progression in life," when you become a parent that provides perspective on your own parents.

"There's a moment where you realize your own parents are just kids who had kids," he says. "And it's like, 'Oh wow. So this deity in my life that I looked up to as a god is really just a flawed human being just like myself.' And so you learn to forgive them for any issues that they may have had because hey, they were just trying. They're just people just like you."

Pratt and Schwarzenegger welcomed their daughter back in August. The couple shared the news and a first photo of their newborn baby girl's hand alongside a sweet announcement about her birth shortly after she arrived.

"We are beyond thrilled to announce the birth of our daughter Lyla Maria Schwarzenegger Pratt," the caption on both parents' Instagram posts read at the time. "We couldn't be happier and we feel extremely blessed! Love, Katherine and Chris."

Pratt's upcoming movie The Tomorrow War is available to stream July 2.