It was her school teacher that told her. The Rabbit and her little friend So-and-So came out of class on Friday barely able to contain their excitement. They were planning their tricks. Their excitement was so overwhelming they couldn't keep any of them secret. I could tell it was going to be a long weekend! So-and-So was all about pretend spiders on backs. The Rabbit was less decisive and talking nonsense. As Sunday approached she still couldn't decide what she was going to do to prank everybody!
On Saturday night, still unable to decide and me without even the tiniest of clues of what to suggest, we consulted our good friend Google. Google wasn't that much help. It had few suggestions and even fewer I was willing to try: turning taps to spray in unsuspecting faces; gladwrap on the toilet bowl and foul tasting pretend coffee were repeat suggestions. Others were fake but real looking food. Things like that took planning. I was trying to get the child to bed not sit up all night making plasticine food with her. Like it would fool anyone.
We decided we would take Daddy an empty mug for his coffee in the morning and she would get Daddy to fill her cereal bowl with milk after I had hidden food colouring under the cereal. It was the best plan we could muster. There were almost tears when Daddy got up to make the coffees. The cereal plan didn't work brilliantly. I had to stir it all up before it worked. Daddy hadn't had a coffee so he didn't make too much effort to smile. I hadn't had a coffee so I didn't care. I went back to bed to read while The Rabbit schemed. I didn't get much reading done. She came in begging for a trick that would work. We screwed up some paper and wrapped it in an easter egg wrapper. She gave it to the Contessa. The Contessa clearly couldn't be bothered humouring a five year old. "Ha ha" she moaned sarcastically. The Rabbit stomped back in to my room.
Daddy came in with my coffee and asked us if we'd seen the frog on the back lawn. We've had frogs before. Big ones. I am scared of frogs. I discovered this the first time one appeared. I rang MAF. They laughed at me. I sent in a photo of the giant frog. They called it a "little" frog. It was as big as my fist plus legs! Apparently it wasn't an escaped foreign enemy. It was a local. The Rabbit looked out the window in excitement. I clicked as she did so. "April Fools" said Daddy. "Harrumph" said the Rabbit. She'd have found it a lot funnier if someone had fallen for one of her tricks.
It turned out that we had one more opportunity to trick the Dadda. He spilled his own coffee so we made him another one. With soy sauce. Because I'm a woman who doesn't believe something as important as a morning coffee should ever be interfered with I whispered bewares to my husband. I also shot "you'd better act a LOT better than you have done" looks. Thankfully he pretended to taste it, then went "oh yuck, what is that" and The Rabbit was happy. "Ha ha ha" she laughed maniacally."We tricked you, April Fools Day". It was a big relief to us all that she thought she'd been successful. The day proceeded quietly with the odd spider on our backs.
"I love April Fools Day" she said as I tucked her into bed. A friend had told me April Fools was great for fooling kids - "hey, let's go to the zoo....April Fools, hey chocolate cake for dinner....April Fools" It made me laugh but I couldn't muster the mean. I told her I had a trick for her to forewarn her little temperament "we can have pizza for breakfast I said". Her eyes widened in excitement then went "oh, April Fools' Day". "You know Mummy" she said "Mrs C said anyone who did an April Fools joke after lunch was the one who was the fool". "Fair enough" I said, not really believing that one. It is called April Fools' DAY not morning or hour or minute. I finally understand the limitation though - it's a long day if madness and mayhem and maniacal laughter is left to its own devices any longer than is absolutely necessary. In retrospect though, I did really enjoy my baby's latest "first".
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