Yesterday the kids and I spent some time pretending we were staying at a cabin in the woods near the coast and that it was March. We convinced ourselves that if we waited long enough we would be able to see whales flash their tales out of the water and spray saltwater into the sky.

They were nice whales. Avadore likes his whales purple. I like mine a brilliant fall leaf red. LD likes his whales, "Di di di!" -- a color only he knows.

Avadore played over at sesameworkshop.com for a while. He learned about making lemonade and the sorts of things one might find in a classroom and how to categorize dogs and lizards based on size, color, stripes and ear size. He is manipulating the mouse very well. He is almost four, and I can't say that I quite know how exactly to feel about that.

Still, we all had an undercurrent of grump. I'm not sure that any of us feel our best, though we are definitely doing much better today. Avadore spent the last few days being particularly physical with the cat, LD and I. (He's a pretty physical kid in the first place.) And that alone tells me something is wrong.

He woke up this morning, got out of bed, found me and started to cry. Not with tears, but in the best way he knew to explain that he didn't feel his best. "I don't feel good, Mama." After we determined that there wasn't a lot to be done to completely make him feel better, I threw him in the bath and it wasn't long before he was playing and singing. He's been himself since.

Even though it seems LD still has a touch of the crud, he is still himself -- happy and sweet. He can feed himself raisins and cubes of cheese and other things like that. The raisins get me, though. And he smiles and babbles and picks up the raisins with his index finger and thumb, fists them and shoves them in his mouth, picks up another raisin while chewing, swallows, and puts another raisin in his mouth. And he processes them really well for only having two teeth.

Other than being sick, I think part of their problem is that they miss Rice. Avi was asking today if we could go to Grandma and Grandpa's and go see Daddy. Not today. Next weekend we'll see Daddy. Even if Daddy wasn't working it's winter again, as of last evening, late.

I hope the whales have migrated on to warmer waters. It's snowing and blowing outside. It wouldn't take a lot for us to have a regular blizzard. Too cold for whales. Even purple ones.

But polar bears might be here. And snow bunnies with ears short enough to protect them from the cold. And snowy owls. And caribou. Or maybe we're really in the southern portion of the world and we might see penguins and seals.