At the breakfast table this morning I was suddenly reminded that it was the first of April.
“Hey Emma,” I said. “Happy New Year!”
She looked up from her peanut butter bagel. “What?”
“It’s the New Year! April first! Don’t you know that it’s 2007? We celebrate the new year twice a year. Didn’t you hear the fireworks last night?”
Mark joined in. “They were so loud! How could you sleep through it?”
“I didn’t hear… ” Emma was totally reeled in.
“What about the marching band,” I continued. “They went right up our street!”
“Marching band?”
“Yes, and animals! There were a lot of animals too…”
At this point I couldn’t help smiling. I am a terrible liar. She caught my grin and pointed at me, “MUMMY YOU ARE KIDDING.”
And then we told her about April Fools Day.
In retaliation Emma immediately went into my sock drawer and deliberately mismatched a pair of my sport socks. I knew what she had done, because she’s almost as bad a liar as I am. She wouldn’t leave my side, and she also kept asking me things like: “are you going to wear socks today?”
For Mark she pretended to have discovered a painful bump on her rear end and demanded he look at it. He didn’t fall for that one.
