Well, here it is - my first official blog post from Atlanta! The last couple of days have been hectic, to say the least! But we're here, and thanks to my mom, we are mostly settled and ready to begin our amazing journey with Brain Balance.
We've had to make a big change in our Brain Balance plan. We had originally planned for Aidan to attend the program at the Suwanee Center, as we've been working with the great folks in Suwanee since September. The center is 20-25 miles from the condo, which seemed possible - until we got here and made the trek a few times! Twenty miles in Atlanta can seem like a hundred, when you factor traffic into the equation. Thankfully, Jennifer, the director at Suwanee, was able to facilitate our transfer to the Roswell Center, a much closer location for us. In fact, she personally drove Aidan's file to Roswell Friday afternoon, to meet with Dr. Pete Scire, the Director at the Roswell Center, and his staff to discuss the plan for Aidan. We are so very grateful to Jennifer, Lisa, and the staff at Suwanee for ALL that they have done for us these last few months - Aidan has made SO much progress, thanks to their hard work and dedication. We will miss everyone in Suwanee, but we are very excited to be working with Dr. Pete and his staff in Roswell. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Pete at the Zac Brown Band concert on New Year's Eve, and we hit it off right away! We are extremely grateful to everyone at the Roswell Center for making room on their schedule for us, with very little notice. (These Brain Balance folks are truly amazing!)
So the last three days...WOW! Mom and I drove up together on Wednesday, caravan style. We drove straight to Brain Balance for Aidan's first session - and write this down please, we were twenty minutes EARLY! Aidan had a great session, and afterwards, we found a great park in Suwanee with a fountain for the kids to play in. (I will find a way to post a few pictures very soon - the kids had a much-needed blast!) We headed back to the condo, by way of the grocery store, and unloaded both of our cars. We unpacked and cleaned for as long as the kids would let us, fed them an early dinner, and loaded the bikes and cars up for a quick trip to the nearby park. Everyone was worn out when we got back! We bathed the kids, and got them settled into bed, and amazingly enough, bedtime was very smooth. Ashwin spent his very first night in a real bed (not a crib) and he was such a champ! My baby is growing up so fast! Mom was supposed to head home on Thursday, but she told me she had decided to stay an extra day to help me get settled. I have never been quite so relieved in my life! I was already planning to lay down on the ground behind her car, if she tried to leave Thursday - glad I didn't have to do that!
Thursday morning, we loaded everyone up and headed to Target for supplies. We made it back to the condo with just enough time to grab Aidan's lunch and head to Brain Balance for his session. Mom stayed at the condo with the little guys, and worked her tail off while they napped. On our way home from Brain Balance, Aidan and I stopped for supplies at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, our two new favorite places to shop. When we got back, Mom and I unpacked and organized for a couple of hours. Then we loaded everyone up and headed to my Aunt Gloria and Uncle Bill's house for a quick swim and dinner. After dinner, Alana (my cousin) and I took the boys for a bike/car ride down to the lake near their house, hoping to feed some geese. We couldn't find any geese, but we did see a bunch of lightning bugs, and the boys had a good time. We were all beat when we got home. We skipped baths (swimming in the pool counts, right?) and got the boys tucked in to bed. I got a little more organizing done, poor Mom was wiped out! I finally made her go to bed, and I fell asleep on the futon not too much later.
We spent Friday morning around the condo, mostly finishing the unpacking and organizing. We said goodbye to Mom around 11:30am, and headed over to my Aunt's house. The little boys stayed with Aunt Kris, Uncle Bill and Alana while Aidan and I went to Brain Balance for our last session in Suwanee. When we got back, Aidan and Aeson went for a quick swim with Aunt Gloria while Ashwin napped. We made a quick stop at Publix on the way home - Aidan asked me to make chicken noodle soup for dinner, and we needed a couple of ingredients. The boys called for their Mimi all the way home, and searched every inch of the condo for her when we got there! (We miss you, Mimi!) They watched a show while I fixed dinner. We ate and made it through our bedtime routine with only a moment or two of difficulty. (Did I mention we ALL miss you, Mimi?) Hopefully, over the weekend, we will get to finally get to meet and play with some other relocated Brain Balance moms and kids here in the Atlanta area - fingers crossed!
Finally, a big congratulations to the Zac Brown Band for their CMT award, won for their awesome CMT Crossroads performance of "Margaritaville" with Jimmy Buffett. And for rocking the stage with their performance of "Knee Deep." We wish them all the best - we certainly wouldn't be here on this Brain Balance journey without them!
Have a great weekend, and I'll keep you posted on our Atlanta adventure!
Much love,
Allie
