We met in 2002 while we were both working at BookPeople in Austin, Texas. We got married on June 18, 2005 and now live in a small house in North Austin with our two dogs, Coltrane and Miles, and our three cats - Gnosis, Nona, and Kali. Brian works as an Editorial Assistant at the University of Texas Press and Elizabeth still works at BookPeople as a buyer and the Inventory Operations Manager.

On April 12, 2009 we welcome our first child, Oliver Mott, into our family and on February 12, 2013, his little brother, Henry Charles, joined us three weeks before his expected due date.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Happy 80th Birthday, Great-Great!


My grandmother turned 80 on January 12th and to celebrate my mom, Oliver and I drove up to spend a couple of nights in Midland. Oliver once again proved himself a decent traveler. We woke him up at 6 am on Saturday morning and threw him in the car for the six hour drive. It’s not the most exciting drive and Oliver did some protesting. He also proved himself to be pretty manipulative. Earlier that week he had learned to say: “I pooped” which was music to my ears since it signaled to me a step towards him being interested in potty training. However, it became his ticket out of his car seat on the long road trip. When he got bored he would look at us and say: “I pooped.” We were, of course, in the middle of West Texas without a gas station or rest area near by so we would tell him he had to wait and then we would stop. At this, he would wait a few minutes and then start whining: “My bum! My bum!” over and over again until we finally stopped. Every single time he did this we stopped and found an empty diaper. Every. Single. Time. He’s the boy who cried poop.

But the trip wasn’t all a waste. At one point I asked Oliver who we were going to see and he said: “Great-Great.” The first time he’s said her name. So, his birthday present to her was to say: “Hi, Great-Great!”

Anyway. We got to Midland on Saturday afternoon and went directly to my grandmother’s house. That night we all went out to dinner to celebrate Great-Great’s birthday. 

Sunday morning we went with Great-Great and Uncle Ken to their church. Oliver was so funny when we got there. He walked right up to all of my grandmother’s friends and held his hand out to shake theirs. He won a few fans. Sunday afternoon we spent some time with family and playing at Great-Great’s house. 

We had to head back on Monday but we had such a great time in Midland and were so glad to get to celebrate Great-Great’s 80th birthday.