Impromptu Lesson Plan Thanks To Hilary Duff

My three-year-old and I were spending time together the other day while we were waiting for my four-year-old to get out of her art class. Ashley and I strolled down the sidewalk, peeking in all the shops and restaurants. She, being the curious toddler that she is, was asking questions about everything that we saw. What is this? Why? Why is he doing that? Why? But why?… You get the picture. Fortunately, we happened to walk by a children’s salon. We decided to pop in. They did kids’ haircuts, and YES, they also did kids’ nails! Score. Ashley practically lives for manicures. You many remember from her glamorous spa birthday party (you can check her party out here) how having her hair and nails done makes her beyond excited. This was a nice distraction. She chose a sparkly pink polish (big surprise), and watched intently as her nails were buffed and sparkled.

{Selecting her color… An important decision!}

{Watching every move with fascination}

{Sparkly pink nails. Left hand: The remains of a Frozen tattoo that only looks like dirt!}

As we left the salon and started heading towards Hailey’s art class, we saw a group of photographers. Not just any photographers… paparazzi. Living in Los Angeles, this is about as normal as watching the sunrise each day. But for Ashley, this was very very new, and strange. Walking right next to us (so close that we were probably in most of the pictures) was Hilary Duff and her adorable son Luca. Ashley saw Luca and forgot about the paparazzi for a second. She was more concerned about asking weather or not he (since he was a boy) could get his nails painted, too. Valid question… and yes, he can absolutely get his nails painted if he wants to. I could tell that Hilary was trying to remain calm, but was also trying to rush her son into her car as fast as possible. Ugh, that did not seem like fun.

Ashley was watching everything like a hawk. She was concerned… Who were these guys, and what were they doing? Why were they taking pictures of that mommy and her little boy? This concept was very difficult to explain to a three-year-old, but I tried. She thought the whole concept was odd. We continued on our way, passing a group of people eating at an outdoor cafe. “Why don’t the paparazzi just take pictures of them instead?” She asked. “Or take pictures of him?” She asked, pointing to a man waiting to cross the street. And floods of additional questions followed. I tried explaining again. The whole concept did seem strange, even to me at this point – Especially as I listened to my own explanations and justifications. Part of being a mommy is never knowing what questions or daily lesson plans will be thrown your way. As much as you think you can prepare, you simply can’t be ready for everything.

I then asked Ashley if she wanted to get some ice cream. “Yeah!” She screamed. Paparazzi questions ended there. Whew. Ice cream, as usual, saves the day.