I did not manage to play one prank on my children on April 1 (and, really, that's as lame as you can get when you're a parent). I was too busy spending the afternoon in the lobby of my surgeon’s office, waiting to hear how my ankle looked (good, in case you were wondering).
While I waited, unbeknownst to me my kids were doing their best with April Fool’s Day, bless ‘em. And I didn’t even really figure out their tricks until they told me about them, that’s how out of it I was.
But I did wonder, as I slapped dinner together, why the salt shaker had pepper in it. And it turns out the pepper shaker contained sugar (so that's why it was white!). Except we couldn’t taste the difference. The only way I knew was by Leah’s fork pausing above her plate.
“Did you put salt in this, Mom?”
“Yep.”
“From the shaker by the stove?”
“Yeah.” Why does she care, anyway?
Chuckle, chuckle. “You put sugar in, Mom.”
“I did?”
She also put salt in the water pitcher, hoping I would take a big salty drink. (So that’s why the water was so cloudy. I thought the filter had started leaking some weird white sludge.)
The next morning when the neighbor kids came to pick up my two for the walk to school, Leah’s buddy stooped to pick up a nickel on the front step.
“Hey,” she said, “this is glued on the step.”
And so it was!
Ever since, I’ve been noticing random pennies and nickels on our sidewalk, on the outside window sash, on the back patio—all glued in place. Leah’s best trick that keeps on tricking.
Thank goodness my kids have a sense of humor, anyway. I promise I’ll try harder next year.