My Favorite April Fools Day Joke

My son pulled my favorite April fool's day joke back when he was just a little boy in footy pajamas. At the time, my daughter Maddie was in kindergarten, all chubby pink cheeks and sparkling blue eyes, and Mason was in first grade, all skinny arms and legs and ornery grin.

It was a school night and the baths were over, reading all done, backpacks packed, and tuckered out kids in bed. It was a cold blustery night; March was going out like a lion that year. Sleet was hitting the window with a ping. An alarm blared in the middle of night, jolting me from sleep. Struggling awake in the pitch black, I wondered what was going on.

Half-asleep and confused, I stumbled to the hallway and fumbled for the light switch. I fought the cobwebs in my brain from being suddenly awakened and looked around for a broom or something. I needed to reach the button on the smoke detector in the middle of the hall ceiling. I didn't smell smoke, what was going on? I needed a chair or ladder to reach the alarm.

"Mommmy, turn it off. Mommmy, make it stop," Maddie shouted from her doorway, rubbing her eyes with her small fists.

I turned to grab a chair from my room and Mason stumbled into hallway with his eyes half closed and silky curls matted down. He calmly reached behind the clothes hamper and unplugged his Mickey Mouse alarm clock.

Squinting up at me in the sudden silence, he mumbled, "Happy April fool's day." Not waiting for a reply, he turned and went back to bed.

Maddie and I looked at each other in amazement. I broke into a grin as her face puckered up and she sucked in a lung full of air. "Maaason!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Shhhh sweetie, go to bed," I said as I nudged her back into her room and helped her into bed. I kissed the tip of her nose while whispering, "G'night, baby."

Shaking my head, I looked in on my little jokester and he was already sound asleep. "Happy April fool's day," I whispered as I pulled the blankets under his chin. I didn't even know the little stinker knew how to set the alarm or, for that matter, that it was April fool's day.

Now a freshman in college, Mason is still blessed with that quirky sense of humor. Maddie has lost those chubby cheeks and grown into a lovely young lady with sparkling blue eyes. My almost adult kids continue to amaze me with their intelligence and I still laugh when I remember Mason's first April fool's day joke.