Wilson's Step Stool: A short story

I've been meaning to write about this for quite some time, but today is the day.

Let me start from the beginning. It's about a boy and his beloved step stool. We introduced the step stool for brushing teeth and washing hands. We began to use it more frequently to invite Wilson to help us in the kitchen. Soon, Wilson began to find other uses for his stool. And we encouraged it.

When he was hungry, he would graciously ask for a banana and when we approved would use his stool to get it for himself. Brilliant. When Evelyn was born, the stool graduated in importance. When I was tending to her an unable to cater to his whims, he was able to get things for himself (and for me!).

The role of the step stool in our lives hit a milestone one day when I was nursing Evelyn and I was asking Wilson what he wanted for lunch. Chicken? A sandwich? Spaghetti-o's (a treat)? Soon he was quiet and I discovered why. He had gone into the pantry, selected the can of Spaghetti-o's, gone into the utensil drawer, found the can opener and was determined to do this himself. Just as I realized what was happening the phone rang. No problem for Wilson, he drug his stool to the phone to try to reach it (luckily he isn't tall enough yet for this feat). I realized we may be heading into trouble.

Fast-forward to October through the present. Wilson wakes up at unbelieveably earlier hours. He is up anywhere between 4:30-5:00 a.m. We tend to rise at 5:15 a.m. unless Evelyn beats us to the punch (which is typical). Wilson has started just going downstairs himself which has been a huge blessing. When I went back to work I began making breakfast friendly foods on the weekends so he can grab his little step stool, grab a muffin and eat his breakfast. Aren't we just so smart?

Here's the thing. There have been a few, shall we say, step stool mishaps the past few weeks. We took Wilson's kitchen step stool away. They needed a little breathing room. But this morning, Wilson was determined. He came all the way back upstairs, retreived his bathroom step stool and brought it downstairs. This is what I found.