How Cute Is That?

The other day, I was out for a majority of the day. Shaggy and Dr. D were doing school and hanging out here at home with Li'l Empress. When I'm gone like that, they have a variety of "tools" in their repertoire that they use to occupy her and help her stay busy so they can still do school work.  However, Tuesday, Shaggy pulled a whole new trick out of his bag that turned out to be a HUGE hit!

It seems that the phone was quite busy that particular morning, and he fielded call after call while working on his Spanish lesson. Li'l Empress was quite disappointed that none of the calls were for her and she kept begging him to let her talk too. Instead of getting frustrated and bugged by her single-minded determination and tenacious persistence (like I likely would have been!), he let her hold the phone and told her to wait for the next call.

So she sat down and held the phone in her hands and told him she was "waaating dohn to wing."  In fact, she got specific.  She was waiting for Shaggy's good friends, "Dosh and Dakub to dall me."

He actually got quite a few minutes of peaceful study done while she sat and waited.  AFTER he snapped this cute shot, that is.

How cute is that?

Then, Shaggy took his creativity to yet another whole level of greatness.  He made a little arrangement with Dr. D to watch over Li'l E while he slipped away for a minute or two. THEN. Then he called our house phone from his cell phone and asked for Li'l E.  She was ecstatic! The phone had rung and it was for HER!

She was positive it was Daddy on the phone and she spent the next few minutes filling "him" in on all the big happenings of her day. She chatted away, a mile a minute, with Shaggy/Daddy and couldn't wait to tell me all about her very own phone call when I got home for lunch.

No wonder Shaggy is her biggest hero these days.  He really went above and beyond for this one. I'm so grateful for his tender, patient nurture over this little one. I am certain it is depositing and investing into her heart in ways that are utterly immeasurable.

Seriously, how cute is that?

*Edited to add: it seems that BOTH of my boys have some serious mush going on for their little sister. Turns out, it was actually Dr. D's idea for Shaggy to go upstairs and call Li'l E.  Now, I'm sighing. The cute factor just soared!