Foolish Games

"I'm tired of winter, Mom.  When's it going to be spring?"

"Actually, it already is spring-- April in fact.  April Fool's Day, even." 

"April Fool's Day?  Really?  Can I play a trick on you?"

I'm sick of winter, too, so sick in fact that the prospect of my son deliberately tricking me into believing that Graham was missing or that the motorhome had once again traversed our driveway into the neighbor's yard seemed more like fun than torture.

"Sure, you can trick me.  But since I know you're going to do it, it won't be much of a surprise.  What if we tricked Daddy instead?"

"Yeah, I want to trick Daddy!"

"Okay, what should we do?"

"I know, I know!  Let's steal and hide his iPad!  Or we could drop it in the toilet like your phone (yeah, you read that right) and then it won't work.  And Daddy will try to use it and it will be broken and we'll laugh!"

My son, everyone.  Putting the "fool" in April Fool's Day.

"Cael, an April Fool's Day joke is supposed to be silly, not mean.  Breaking and hiding Daddy's stuff is never an okay thing to do.  Let's think of something different."

Maybe the whole thing was a divine practical joke being played on me; from Cael's insistence on tricking me to his plethora of suggestions (including, but not limited to putting wet nail polish on the toilet seat, soaking all of Joel's boxers in milk and eating all of the peanut butter.  I'm not really sure how that last one is a trick on Joel, but the prankster himself assured me that it was.)

After 20 minutes of debating what to do and coming to no conclusions, I had to shut down the conversation with the promise of discussing it more later.  Daddy had a late night anyway, and there would be plenty of time to plot.

I shouldn't have been surprised, then, to hear Cael rummaging around in my bedroom, only to emerge with the following enthusiastic exclamation.

"It's DONE."

Aw, crap.

"What's done, Cael?"

"Daddy's trick.  I did it, and it's awesome."

"What did you do?" I asked, not sure if I really wanted to be face-to-face with milk-soaked underpants or peanut-buttery fingerprints on my television set.

"My trick is the best trick ever.  I didn't break anything and I didn't hide anything.  And he's going to think it's crazy and wild and silly and he'll laugh for so long and it's the best trick ever!"

"Okay, let's see it." 

"I took Daddy's shoes from here, by his shoe bag, and I put them here, on the floor close to his shoe bag.  They aren't missing, see?  But when he goes to take the shoes out of his shoe bag and they aren't in the shoe bag but instead they are on the floor in front of the shoe bag, he will laugh.  He will laugh so hard."

"That is a wonderful prank, Cael.  It's tricky and funny and perfect for Daddy."

And that might be the biggest joke of them all.