Conversations with my Kid – The Ryan Seacrest Edition

On Wednesday, I had the too rare opportunity to spend some alone time with my second-born, the light, lovely, sassy, love-fairy of my life, my 5-year-old Phoebe. My lil’ dude was home with a babysitter, my oldest, Claire, went home from school with a friend for a special play date, and so I trekked on over to the school to pick up Phoebes for some quality one-on-one time with her mama.

The plan was to go to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica so we could run errands together. I know. That sounds like awesome quality one-on-one time. But she was cool with it. And if you know anything about the Promenade, it can be a fun place for kids. There’s treats to buy, street performers to watch, and these dinosaur-hedge structures that spit water out of their mouths.

Who can’t get behind a water-spewing hedge dinosaur?

Exactly.

And on Wednesday afternoon, Phoebe also had an intense desire to find a clown. This surprised me because her feelings about the clown species are usually not happy ones. Depending on the day, she fluctuates between an intriguing fascination to watch from a safe distance at these painted face masters of balloon-bending to an all-out run-away as fast as she can deep fear of the people with the large red noses.

And on the Promenade, the clown that’s usually around is this guy:

So when she said she actually wanted to find a clown, I was all huh?

But whatever. I said we would keep an eye out.

Not long after our Promenade stroll began, we happened upon a group of people who seemed to be gawking at something. We just couldn’t see what. Perhaps it was our clown?

Nope.

It was this guy.

Now, I’ve defended Ryan Seacrest on Twitter when he was being lumped together with Billy Bush. I mean, really? I like Ryan. He seems like a sincere dude when he deals with all of those American Idol families and well, he’s won me over.

Phoebe and Claire have JUST started to get into watching American Idol. They like watching the judges decide whether or not the person will be going to “Hollywood!!!!” And they don’t yet grasp that Hollywood is just a grungy place about 20 minutes away from where we live. So when we saw Ryan sitting at a table for lunch, we stopped and stared with the other scattering of onlookers.

I explained to Phoebe who Ryan was and that he was from American Idol and didn’t she recognize him? She wasn’t sure but before she could think much more about it, this happened:

Yep. We witnessed a flash mob. (If you pause it at 1:32, you will see me holding Phoebes in the background. Not like you care. But it was fun for us to see!)

And after all that, the Ryan Seacrest sighting, the music, the crowd, the dancing, the kissing, the glamour of it all, Phoebe simply turned to me and said,

“Can we go find a clown now?”

Sorry Ryan. But my 5-year-old finds a half-baked street clown a little bit more interesting than you. But if you could learn to make balloon animals? Then you would have a fighting chance.

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Like all internet sensations, “Conversations with my Kid” is building slow and steady. (ha) But really, if you want to add a link to a post that YOU’VE written about a conversation with your kid, then add the link below. And I will check it out!

Have a great Valentine’s Day weekend….hope you find lots of time for kissing those you love.