Yup…that is a traffic cone he dragged around for a while the other day. I’m not sure what is going through his head when he is doing it, but it really doesn’t matter. It all seems to make him happy…

It’s been months, over 9 to be exact, since I last contributed to our Mills Family blog so I felt compelled to share our latest post.  We just returned from Fiji last night…we arrived on Mother’s Day weekend.  Therefore Happy Belated Mother’s Day to all the blessed mothers out there!  We were thinking of all of you on that day while we were soaking up rays and playing in the sand.  ;-)  Why Fiji you may ask?  Our other destinations probably didn’t strike as many questions given our location here in Australia and Fiji also happens to be an annual destination for many Aussies and Kiwis (that or Bali) as Fiji was just 4(ish) hours flight time away.  We read that the beaches were nicer in Fiji as opposed to Bali so that’s how we made our final call on our tropical destination.  Nothing will ever beat our honeymoon destination in Bora Bora of course, but Fiji was a great family destination.  We stayed on Denarau Island, as that’s where all the large hotel chains were located as well as the main docking port for ships (therefore a good tourist spot with some restaurants and shops).  There were lots of families with 2 kids, lots of prams, etc. Unlike our visit to Bora Bora which required flying into Tahiti, staying a night, taking a smaller flight to Bora Bora, then taking a boat ride to our resort, this time we wanted to make our travel time to the resort as short as possible given Wesley was in tow.  Wesley especially enjoyed it the most!  Infact, he wanted to share what he did so he’s our guest contributor to this blog post:

I played in the sand….

I swam….

I walked on the beach and stared at the waves….

I played some more…..

I rode the Bula Bus to and from the Port….

I played in the fountain at the Port Marina….

I slept in my ‘private’ makeshift cot….

I got Mr.Bear dirtier with each passing day and drove mom nuts with the smell!….

And believe it or not, I also took time to relax…

What else did mom and dad think of Fiji?  It was a great time, however, we were somewhat disappointed with the food.  What do you expect to get on a tropical island?  For me, impeccable seafood and an abundance of good fruits.  We didn’t think the seafood was that great, fish selection seemed to be Walu, Walu, or Walu. We had a good fish dinner one evening (thank goodness as the restaurant was called “Flying Fish”), but other times at dinner buffets the fish was super dry.  As for fruit, the only thing that really stood out was the pineapple for me and Joe enjoyed the bananas. Wesley, who usually has a banana every morning, was not favorable toward the Fijian banana.  He ate some watermelon and oranges when we could find the sweet ones.  We couldn’t help but notice that there seemed to be an excessive amount of employees….everywhere.  For instance, this cafe (a small counter specifically) that we’d get our daily afternoon tea (or coffee rather), 1 employee would ask what we wanted, another employee would make the coffee, another employee would get the food we wanted, another employee would take our payment.  We’d be thinking “this operation needs 2 employees, tops!”  We’re not against employing the locals but there’s got to be a better way to keep everyone busy.  Even at the airport, while we were waiting for our flight (2 hours), there was a group of employees just chillin’ in the corner and talking.  Seriously?

Hard to believe in just 8 short weeks, we will already be on a plane for our annual visit home!  I’m on the hunt for a good dinner destination for myself and Joe, please share any recommendations!  In the mean time, we leave you with this amazing view of a Fijian sunset…

It has been a rough week for Wesley. We’ve had some runny noses and sniffles and other minor issues since his birth, but this felt like his first real sickness. I think what made it more “real” this time is that you could tell from Wesley’s overall mood that he was sick. Instead of running around and getting into everything, he has slowly plodded around the house and played with things more gently. It started out on Sunday with a runny nose and slight cough. Napping and sleeping became a problem because his stuffed up nose was making it hard to breathe so he wasn’t getting enough rest. We found out from the doctor today that he has some kind of sore throat which would explain him losing his appetite. Wednesday was the worst because his cough sounded wetter and he was very tired. After I got him up from a restless morning nap, he came out into the living room and just laid on the floor for part of the morning. In the afternoon, I laid him in the cot at 2 and he stayed there until 5. I’m sure he didn’t sleep the whole time, but since he was quiet, I didn’t want to bother him. He seemed to be in better spirits today, so we are hoping he has seen the worst of it.

I guess stories of children playing with odd items is nothing new, but I think Wesley takes it to another level some times. For instance, this past Thursday, Aimee allowed Wesley to play with her (unplugged) hair dryer. After she left for work, Wesley played with the hair dryer for at least 45 minutes. Dad was not needed to provide entertainment. He was happy picking it up, playing with the cord, dropping it on the floor and dragging it on the ground. We left to go swimming which takes about three hours of our time. As soon as we returned home, right back to the dryer. Go down for a nap…wake up…dryer. When Aimee got home, he kept handing it to her. At first, we thought he wanted her to turn it on, but I think he just wanted to prove he knew that it was Mom’s hair dryer. His attention towards the dryer has obviously waned but he still plays with it and even requests it when he sees it on top of the dresser. You want to know why they like these strange items, but it is probably better to know he can entertain himself with almost anything.

I’m finding out that the way kids learn things doesn’t make a lot of sense. For months, we had been feeding Wesley water with a sippy cup. We will offer it to him and he will open his mouth wide or push it away. For the most part, he made no attempt to hold the bottle himself…which is what I was expecting at some point. Last week, Aimee decided to break out a cup with a straw. We had tried it before with little success but she figured it was time to try again. Within the span of a day, he was not only drinking through the straw but also holding on to it as he drank. And, after we feed him a bottle of milk, he will grab the bottle after he is done and try to drink from it. Also, something he had not done before. Whatever works…

And, one more quick note about our trip last week, we saw our first wild kangaroo during our drive. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great time to stop so we don’t have pictures. At least we can say we saw one…