MrH was helping me outside trimming trees for a few minutes, then went back inside. By himself, he started gathering “tools” together to come help me, including his stool from the bathroom. After some rummaging around, he said out of nowhere to Mama, “If only I had an ax.”

He re-emerged outside with his stool and a plastic beach toy rake, and when the stool proved to be too short to reach the branches he insisted I hold him up. He was both surprised and disappointed that the rake was not sharp enough to cut the tree, and profoundly sad that I deemed a pole saw not kid-friendly enough for a four year old.