Faking it

The other day I went into Ava's bedroom to get her up in the morning. I had heard her making noise through our monitor, so I knew she was up. Usually when I come into her room in the morning and turn on the light she'll stand up and shout at me like a monkey at the zoo. This day was a little different though.

I opened the door to her bedroom, turned on the light, and looked in her closet for an outfit. There was a stillness to the room like a lake in the early morning fog. "That's weird," I thought. I picked out an outfit and went to see why she wasn't giving me her typical barrage of squeals. I looked into her crib and there she was. She was laying down on her side with a blanket covering her upper body and face. She was completely still except for a slight flexing of her fingers. I started playing into her game. "Ava, where are you? Are you still sleeping? You must be pretty tired." Her fingers slightly moved again, but she was maintaining her statuesque pose with the determination of a street performer. I reached into her crib and began to slowly pull up her blanket. Her body tightened as the tension built, keeping herself from springing the trap too soon. As the edge of the blanket passed her chin I saw a sly smile develop. Not much farther to go. The moment climaxed as her eyes were revealed to be wide open. She finally let loose the shouts and squeals that I had been anticipating. I acted surprised so that she could enjoy her own comedic genius.

The truth is I pulled stunts like this when I was a kid. I remember countless times I would feign sleeping while in the car on the way home just so Dad would carry me in to bed when we got there. I probably did such a novice job at it that my faking was as easily identified as Ava's. Still, many times I would succeed in getting carried to bed.

Ava, I'll play along, but you'll have to wake up pretty early in the morning to fool your daddy.