Mommy Duck

One of my favorite memories of Kayleigh is the three months she refused to answer to her own name. She was about three and she informed us she was “baby duck.” I remember trying to get her to answer to “Kayleigh” with all sorts of bribery but she was steadfast. Actually, she was ornery, obstinate, and down right stubborn about it. Of course, I’m ornery, obstinate and down right stubborn too, not to mention, I’ve had many more years to practice. I figured getting my three year old to fall in line certainly wouldn’t be that hard. Oh how wrong I was. Looking back, I can see I made a serious tactical error when I failed to account for her daddy’s stubborn streak. My sweet girl, took mine, her daddy’s, and probably a little from everyone in our family tree and combined it with her precious smile and sassy attitude to create this unstoppable force. She simply set her mind to something and promptly became the most beautiful pint-size steam roller until her expectations were met. Not only did I cave and start calling her Baby Duck, I started answering to Mommy Duck, and to this day we are Mommy Duck, Daddy Duck, Sissy Duck, Brother Duck and Baby Duck.

Mr. Whiskers

Tim began growing a beard in November 2014 for “No Shave November.” His beard was in honor of a dear friend fighting glioblastoma brain cancer, but after Kayleigh’s diagnosis Tim decided there was no good reason to shave – his beard would be a reminder. Fast forward to our last family vacation with Kayleigh in July 2016. We were on a cruise visiting multiple ports and of course there were many people selling their goods around the ship. One gentleman was working very hard to get our attention, but we were doing our best to move on and return to the ship. Finally, the man began saying, “Mr. Whiskers, you know you want to shop in here!” The children found the nickname absolutely hysterical. From that point forward Kayleigh would call Tim “Mr. Whiskers” any time she wanted a good laugh. Tim even began using “Mr. Whiskers” as his sign-off name on the blog.

The Adventures of Mommy Duck & Mr. Whiskers

We will use this portion of the site to keep you updated about what is going on in the life of our family. It seems we always find ourselves on one adventure or another. We are excited to share the journey with our Live Purple friends.