My mother had her operation on Friday and she is in good spirits. The prognosis is OK with more to be known later. It was a long day on Friday. We arrived at the hospital at 6 AM. I waited in the surgery waiting room until 10 when a nurse called me to say that the laproscopic inspection had gone well and that they were going to proceed with the "resection" "It will be several hours." she said "Go home or go to work." So I went to work where the surgeon called me at 3 PM to say that he had successfully completed the procedure. After that, I didn't understand much.

After I visited her this morning, we headed to the beach. Hank, who is usually shy of water, reveled in the waves and in the brackish pond behind the beach. As Sarah and I were walking along the beach she said "Virgin Gorda." "Virgin Gorda what?" I said. "I just saw someone with a Virgin Gorda tee shirt. I've always wanted to go to Virgin Gorda."

In my seven years with Sarah I have never known her to really want to go somewhere or some place. I was shocked. The planning has begun for a winter visit.

Winter has turned into Summer. The boys are spending most days at the the Seekonk Swim and Tennis Club. There is a new complication in our lives and our family. My mother is sick. She has only been feeling unwell for a little over a week and received a preliminary diagnosis this past Friday.

Although the boys know she has been to the hospital, she looks fine when they see her, and she has remained in pretty good spirits especially when they are around. She will be seeing a liver surgeon Wednesday to decide on the next step. Soon we will have to talk to the boys about what is going on.

Based upon some comments from my regular readers, I have started doing theme weekends with the boys. Last weekend the theme was the word "no". This went pretty well. I covered such things as when the word "no" really meant no and when it might not mean no. By the end of the weekend, Hank could repeat back to me what I had been saying to him, and I think he has been somewhat better at responding to the word. Skipper, who was better to start with, but still pretty bad, has not shown any improvement.

This weekend the theme is "things" and how the love of your mom, dad, and brother and the interesting and enjoyable things you can do in the absence of new "things" is more important than the acquisition of things. This has been more difficult to articulate, although we did make it through the whole day without acquiring anything we didn't need (other than the Star Wars ice cream bar from the ice cream truck that stopped at the park). We will see how it goes tomorrow.