The joke was on me this April 1st. My kids woke up at the crack of dawn and were wide awake. Usually I can cajole and convince them it’s still nighttime anytime before 7:30 am when our au pair Madeline starts her shift. This was not the case for April Fools. Lady Kitty had woken up early, and with her she brought Lake. And Lake was feeling fresh and chatty.

Often Lady Kitty sleeps straight through the night. They both do. Sometimes, (a few nights a week? it’s not a huge deal and comes with its own pleasantries) Lady Kitty will wake up for a night milk, or as more often is the case, an early early morning feed around 5 am. Then she’ll happily return to her peaceful baby slumber while I slip off to work. Lake typically will have remained alseep the whole time, none the wiser. This was not to happen on April 1st. April 1st was not to be a typical day.

After feeding Lady Kitty and tucking her in, thinking she would be utterly content, Lake hollered alarm bells to me. “Tolle! Tolle, Lady Kitty is out of bed!” Lady Kitty had indeed crawled right out of her bed, and as I returned to the scene, she dodged me. She zoomed underneath my feet and went straight for the stairs. She navigated her crawl purposefully over the baby gate without missing a beat. She paused to look over the edge. She had sometimes sat at the top of the stairs as if gazing down into the canyon from the rim, but never before had she attempted downclimbing. Today was different. After a short caluculating apprasial, she scooted herself around to where her backside was in the air, and began feeling her way down the stairs, feet exploring the way like antennae.

By the close of day, she was scooting up and down the stairs nonstop, even with favored objects in hand such as her calculator. Clack, thump, thump, slap. Clack, thump thump slap. She was thoroughly enjoying herself, full of confidence. The type of confidence that’s earned through the reward of having taken of a well calculated risk fueled by curiosity.

They both took monsterous naps later and the joke was all on me. What can I say? A perfect day. I’m glad I spent it with you.