Bonnaman

Bonnaman, Bonnaman, where are you? I love you!

This is a typical little song you might here around our house. Why? Well Brendan loves songs and Brendan has lots of nicknames. BrenderBear. Bonnie. LonieBon. Bonnaman. And of course, B.

We love him so much. You can't help but fall in love with him. He is irresistible.

Here is my B bringing a smile to my face.





In the first and last picture, he is eating a Cadbury Egg. It was mine, but he looked at me with those big brown eyes, and well....he soon was enjoying his first Cadbury Egg! :-)

Over Halfway there!!!

We are over halfway to our summer vacation fund goal!

I am excited about the amount of money we have saved in a short time and some of the ways we have come up with the money. This is fun!

This is our test drive for saving vacation money to next year's big trip to DISNEY WORLD!!!

One of our best hauls yet!

Some of it.....

the rest of it....

We went to Kroger today as a family. I usually do the shopping alone or with just the little one, but since I can't drive we all had to go. Thanks to Kroger and their cute kid car carts, it wasn't bad. We split up and got so much done so quickly! James and Daniel were a team with part of the list. B and I tackled the rest. Finally after learning the store and getting back in the swing of "The Grocery Game", it goes pretty fast. We spent $116. We saved $109.70. That is a 48% savings! Our stockpile is growing and growing. Nice to go out to our own little "store" in our garage and see what we have in the deep freeze and on the shelves.

Number of Coupons Used: 32
Items Purchased: 87
Items Bought at Regular Price (No Coupon or Not on Sale) = 6, excluding produce

Freebies we snagged today:
*Coffee Mate Creme Brulee Creamer
*2 Michelena's frozen dinners
*Aloutte Baby Bree Cheese Wheel
*Aquafresh Toothpaste
Yakisoba Noodles
Right Guard
Dial Handsoap
Sunny D
Airwick Air Freshener

TOTAL OF FREE ITEMS: $17.22 (many of these were on sale and then with the coupons they became free because of doubling or tripling coupons so the real savings exceeds $17.22) *These items were free due to coupons received directly from manufacturer through the "5 a Day" at Couponing to Disney site, my favorite money saving site.

It is a little hard to tell from the picture, but we got a huge pot roast and a pound of ground sirloin. I put a gallon of Bluebell in the freezer before this picture. We also found some great produce but didn't have to buy some that we usually do, thanks to our new garden! :-) More on that later....

And how does Brendan feel about shopping with mommy???

Because the cost of diapers is wearing me out....

Ok, because the cost of EVERYTHING is wearing me out, I decided to get back into couponing and I am LOVING it. This sounds lame, but it is really a fun little hobby. I get a little thrill every time I save money. No, I could not go on Extreme Couponing. But I think I am still pretty cool. ;-)

My mommy friends should know about a particularly great deal right now on diapers at Walgreens. You can get the Walgreens brand diapers for $2.50 per pack. And before you say, EEEW, Walgreens brand???? Let me stop and say they are very nice diapers. I like them a lot. We have not had a single leak or blow out in one month. If you are still skeptical, I suggest you try them out for daycare where they change your kid, say, oh every 5 seconds.

Here is how the deal works:
1. Pick up an Infant Care Coupon Book (this is easier said than done, trust me. It takes looking around an asking) at your local Walgreens.
2. These diapers are normally $8.99 but are BIGI (buy one get one free)
3. The coupon is $2.00 off one pack of diapers.
4. If you buy 2 packs of diapers for $8.99 that makes them about $4.50 each. Then if you take $2 off EACH pack with the coupon, you are paying about $2.50 give or take a cent for each pack. You can buy as many as you want using one coupon.

I have purchased about 14 packs of diapers this way. Love them for daycare because one pack is easy to carry into daycare for the week. We are in size 3 now but I have some size 3, 4 and 5.

I have LOTS of these Infant Care Coupon Books because I looked and looked and one Walgreens lady felt so bad for me that she gave me like 15 of them, seriously. This is the second time the Walgreens diapers have gone on sale BIGI in the last month and the second time I have stocked up using this coupon at the $2.50 price. I know some naysayers would say "But is is that good of a deal? Could you score the same price per diaper at Costco or Sam's?" Perhaps. However, I don't have to have about $50 at once to buy these! :-) Hence the awesomeness!

If you can't find the coupon book and want one, send me your address and I will mail you one. I am not sure of the exact expiration date on these but it is too cool to pass up. There are other good coupons for Huggies, Triple Paste, etc. but the Walgreens diaper deal is the best so far. :-)

Happy Shopping!

Brendan and Why We Aren't The Favorite Patient

Brendan had his 18 month well-child visit and I will do the math for you and tell you he is really 19 months old. I am not sure what is up with that, but oh well. He did his 15 month check up at 16 months, so let's keep the pattern going. He did GREAT except for opening and closing the door to the little room about, hmmm, 100 times. He loved yelling out BAM and then trying to slam it, barely missing his fingers each time. Why didn't I stop him!? Oh I tried. And I tried. And I tried. It was pretty futile on my end. He shrieked and yelled no and even two times ran full speed away from me down the hall donning a diaper and sandals. That was awesome, especially when other people were out there and they have all these privacy signs up about being quiet to protect patient privacy. And here comes B. Running like some track star, his little belly button sticking out and squealing while I am trotting behind him. So my plan for next time?!??? To bring one of those thingees where kids can't open doors! YES! In fact this is such a great idea I bet you other mommies would agree with me. In fact, I think I should set up a little shop outside the doctor's office to sell these things and make a lot of money! Ha! Why do they put you in the teeny-tiny room for 20 minutes with nothing to do with a 19 month old except open and shut and open and shut and open and shut and well you get the idea. A door thingee would be better than being climbed all over by an angry sandal wearing toddler who is having a teary tantrum because out of sheer desperation you have moved a chair to block the door and are sitting in the chair.

So about the kiddo: He is GREAT, WONDERFUL, PERFECT and given what has been going on with some friends of ours I was just giving thanks for that right there in the little exam room. A healthy child. I just don't think there is anything better. No, I KNOW there is nothing better. Brendan was 25 lb and 36.5 inches tall. Our little man had a growth spurt and really shot up! The doctor noticed right away how tall he was. The pedi checked him all out (including a worrisome bump on his noggin - all ok, just a little bit assymetrical little head). On track with everything and she was really excited about how far he has come since his gross motor delay diagnosis. You can't even tell now! Unless you are a occupational therapist and you are staring at how he eats. He doesn't chew on the left. Might end up being one of B's little quirks.

How does he measure up?
At 19 months:

your child is 25 pounds, and that is
at the 31th percentile for weight.

your child is 36.5 inches, and that is
at greater than the 97th percentile for height.

So yes, Brendan is our second string bean baby. I am not sure how this happens but it does. He alternates between barely eating and being a BOTTOMLESS pit. I have never seen such a picky eater. Point him in the general direction of carbs and he will find his way. Hoping our little garden inspires him to actually eat some veggies. Lots more taking in little pairs of shorts and jeans in our near future until he fills out.

He got one little shot and then got a sucker and was a happy guy. Mommy was happy that she got to take him (Daddy has gone last couple of times). My little baby is becoming such a big boy! Pedi said paci has to go, so Brendan went to bed without it. It is a good thing I was out and not here for the tears. I am such a softie for this kid!

E-I-E-I - OOOOOO

We headed up to my parent's property while we were visiting them at Spring Break. The property is one of my favorite places that I have ever been. When you are there, everything seems right in the world. You can easily forget all your worries and what is going on everywhere else and just enjoy the moment. The air is so pure and so quiet. Everything is so green and alive. What a peaceful place. It was a perfect day to go. The weather was cool and sunny. Brendan loved riding in the trail wagon for the first time and James loved keeping busy with tools he found, especially the level. We checked out the tank, we looked at the new calf, we rode the property line. My dad and Daniel put up the Martin House. It has inspired us to get some kind of neat birdhouse. My mom helped me take care of Brendan who would have rather been running around all 80 acres! Brendan kept humming Old McDonald and would loudy sing the part E-I-E-I-O! When he forgot the O James would add it on for him. Like always, it was great! Feel very blessed that someday my children will inherit a portion of that land that has been in our family for a long time.

Guilty Blog Deserter

Wow. I have majorly deserted my blog. So I am back and my goal is to update, even very brief updates, once a week. I know. I know. I have said this before. But I will really update it once a week. Or more! Can it be done? YES IT CAN! That way I will not have to have mega-long blog posts. I also decided to give my blog a little face lift that was long overdue. So here goes....

What is new with the Duffy Boys since the last post?

First I will begin with James, our big man on campus. Let me start by saying that the threes, well they are pretty interesting and make me tired! You can now have full on normal conversations with James. He has a lot of opinions (hmmm, wonder where he got that from!) and he is ever so happy to share them all with you. We call him the "Little Professor" because he he so serious when he talks to you and uses a lot of hand gestures. I think in a past life he may have been Italian. I love all my Italian friends! This is a big compliment! He looks at you with those huge brown eyes and you just want to eat him up he is so sweet when he is explaining things to you. He has been really interested in specific things since he was 17 months old (the first was flags of all things), and we have moved through various interests. His current ones are bugs and dinosaurs, and of course the fascination with trains remains. Man oh man, what this kid can tell you about bugs, dinos and trains. Thanks to his science teacher momma he knows about insects having six legs and where the thorax is. He knows which bugs eat what. He is always telling me that bugs are our friends. As far as dinos go, he can name so many and what they eat and what kind of teeth they have. On trains he points out the type of car, but calls the last car a "big-in-the-boose". Not sure why, but I love it and don't have the heart to correct him anymore. James has lots of "favorite things in the whole world" that he likes to tell us about, but he hates and I mean HATES going to bed. We bought his big boy bedding and will be transitioning him from a toddler bed to the bottom bunk of a bunk bed soon. Check out his new bedding here. We also sold his old bedding so his room is kind of bare at the moment. He hasn't seemed to notice...typical boy! :-) He loves school and tells me about his adventures every night. Seems like his favorite things there are playing outside, playing with play dough and doing centers. His teachers are always planning something special and he has learned so much! He also likes music day which is every Tuesday when someone comes in and does "Wiggles and Tunes". Yesterday was a big day for James. He had his first t-ball practice. He LOVED it. We've got to pick up some equipment for that and he is pretty psyched about all of it. Of course, with the threes comes the testing, testing, testing. He is a pro! Teaching your kids to be respectful and kind is a tough job. Sometimes he flat wears me out. My favorite things about James are his serious faces that he gets when he is talking about something that is important to him and the way his little face crinkles up when he throws his head back and this beautiful and infectious laughter comes out if his mouth. How he gets so mad at me when I make him do right, but then comes running to me to kiss a boo boo or snuggle with me. The pulling away battle has begun and is in full swing. But what a privilege to be the mommy of sons. To grow good men - that is my goal. No matter how exhausted I become!!! I CANNOT imagine life without this busy little boy in it!

Now on to the B. Oh the B! I can't tell you how wonderful Brendan is and how happy I am that he is part of our family. He brings so much to our family and was just the missing puzzle piece. We are constantly tickled at how different he and James are, but how they are the perfect match for brothers. They are best friends and worst enemies, one second doubled over in laughter and the next screaming at the top of their lungs. For the most part, they balance each other out and I am SO glad they have each other. Brendan is the ying to James' yang. James is the whipped cream, and Brendan is the cherry on top. Brendan is, simply, the MOST joyful little person I have ever met. I have never met someone who is in such a chronically good mood. You can learn a lot from someone so happy all the time. It is contagious! He is all soft corners and kisses. And he is still a momma's boy and I love every single second of it! I am so enjoying watching him grow. I am very excited that he has started loving books and can often be found sitting in a pile of board books looking through all of them. We read every night before bed and he will pick out the books and toddle over to me and climb up on my lap. It melts my heart. He is also talking so much now. I am really impressed. (James talked pretty late...first words on time but really talking took quite some time.) I am convinced it is because he hears so much language. When I talked to James as a baby he of course didn't talk back. But Brendan is being exposed to so much more language - two way language. Yesterday he talked in a couple of short sentence. His first sentences were: "Oh no! Where is Daddy? Where Daddy go?" Brendan's favorite things are airplanes, dogs, swinging and taking a bath. He can spot a plane from so far away and he will do baby sign language to show you. He adores our dog Cheesecake and will tell me that doggies say "Woof Woof". Whenever he can he tries to dart out the back door to swing. This kid would seriously be content to swing for hours. So grateful for our nice swing set we put in last year. James has even started pushing B on the swing. It is pretty darn cute! And bath time. Well it is pretty messy because we have to have about 100 toys in there, or at least it seems like that many and Brendan just has to dump water over the side of the tub. But he adores bath time so we try to let them have a lot of extra time to play in there. I would say it is easily one of the favorite parts of their day. Brendan never cries or is grouchy about getting his hair washed (unlike someone else who shall remain nameless!). Brendan is still good about sleeping and he loves to cuddle up in his bed. He is still cuddly in general but starting to exert his independence more. I knew this day was coming, but oh how I wish we could put it on hold for just a little longer. Each time I look at B he seems a little taller, a littler leaner. Where did my baby go? If only they could stay tiny forever. If only. Brendan also loves his school. We are so fortunate to have such a wonderful place for our children to learn and explore. What they are getting to do each day and the genuine caring I see from the teachers makes my heart so happy. Brendan loves his teacher Ms. Tammy so much. She says "Oh Boy" a lot and so now B says it too and I just love it. Each day I am learning something new about Brendan and it is the best surprise each day to hear him say a new word or making me laugh over something new.

This has been the latest and greatest on my two sweet little ones! Much more to come! No pictures this time, but stay tuned!