Rabbit Fools!

If you are a mature four-year old ("almost five!), extremely verbal, and you want to worm your way out of being "corrected" for making a request that did not get a favorable response from your mother (i.e., repeatedly whining, "PLEASE, may I have some candy?" right before a meal is served), how would you do it?

I'll tell you where you might start. You might start by adding "Just kidding!" after the mother's initial response, which for a lot of moms might be described simply as, "giving the look." That said, your mom might start to catch on, and one day, she might sit you down and ask, "Were you kidding? If you were kidding, that means that if I said, 'Sure, take the candy!' you wouldn't really want it, because you would know that we don't have candy for snacks and we certainly don't have candy 5 minutes before dinner." A new plan would need to take shape.

Now, if you are EJ, after trying out---and burning out---the "just kidding" approach, you would get ingenious. You'd catalog through your brain, searching for memories of abhorrent occurrences in which it is socially acceptable, maybe even encouraged, to be joking. Without much delay, you would settle in on the chestnut of all goofiness, April Fool's Day.

While a four(ALMOST FIVE!)-year old's jokes are not typically sequential, logical, or even, well, jokes, they are almost always three things:

1) Delivered by someone with a lot of cuteness working in their favor

2) Told repeatedly so that all the cuteness of a baby koala tenderly hugging a kitten would not be enough to make them fun for the listener anymore ("Knock, knock, who's there, someone who wishes she could find the person who developed the knock-knock joke and throttle him, thank you very much)

3) Enjoyed so greatly by the teller of the joke that the laughter and squealing that takes place by the teller makes it hard to hear the joke at all.

The reality is, if I had a paper cut-out of my body that I could just tack up when EJ gets into stand-up mode, we'd both be winners, because she really is her own exuberant, appreciative audience, laughing as she goes. I'd say I'd be an inattentive mom for using this cut-out, but remember, I HAVE HEARD THESE JOKES BEFORE. TRUST ME.

All this is to say that, this year, April Fool's Day started to mean something to EJ, something really good. If it is good one day a year, it must be good ALL THE TIME. So, if "just kidding" was not a get-out-of-jail free card, "April Fool's" was bound to work.

Sort of.

I thought it was funny for awhile---I probably laughed harder at her use of "April Fool's" in mid-May more than I have chuckled in awhile. Pretty soon, though, the rubber was meeting the road once again, and she was the recipient of this fine, "Honey, saying 'April Fool's' only works on April Fool's Day, aside from which, it is really just the same as saying 'just kidding,' and you know what I told you about that...." speech.

Now, faced with these two rebukes from your clearly stoic, comedically-challenged mother, would you give up?

Not if you are EJ! No, no, no! Why work with traditional holidays alone? Why not fashion a holiday tradition out of the existing template, and make it work for you?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce, the pride of my daughter's "you are not going to pin this discipline on me, because I'm going to claim I never meant what I said" arsenal, a phrase I believe may be sweeping pre-K crowds soon:

Rabbit Fools!

That's right! By simply crying, "Rabbit Fools!" with a giggle and a big hug, you say to your mother, "No, of course I would never want to do that rotten thing I just asked to do, I am your child, I understand your loving boundaries for me and would never step over them! I was just celebrating Rabbit Fools, which is like April Fool's Day, but for every day in June, every day in July, every day in August...I just needed to tell you a Rabbit Fools joke, and that was what I was really doing!"

I'm not entirely sure how she settled on rabbit for the name---she was kicking around "May 30 Fools" for a day in the middle of her quest for something new, and realized always claiming the date might become cumbersome. Also, I just flat out said, "There is no May 30 Fools Day, sweetie. I love your creativity, but there's only one day on the calendar specifically for foolishness, the rest of the days we are just foolish on our own."

I'm guessing rabbit springs from our recent conversations about the naughty rabbits in our community garden, eating up all of our food. We've caught several glimpses of them, and even took some pictures.

To him we sang "John the Rabbit"


She's thinks those naughty rabbits are hysterical, but of course, she isn't a big veggie fan these days, so their destruction is all silly high jinx to her. Bunnies! Fun! Eating things they shouldn't, being naughty! HA HA HA HA HA! That's just like asking for candy all day long, every chance I get! HA HA HA HA HA!

Unlike the rabbit, when EJ wants a treat that she knows she shouldn't have, at least she asks for it. For that, I am grateful, and for the cleverness and delight of "Rabbit Fools!" I'm going to let her new phrase slide...for awhile.