Happy Birthday, little brother.

Monday was my "little" brother, Robby's, 21st birthday.

Robby, or Elder Meldau, is currently serving in the Sao Paulo North Mission in Brazil.

And I miss him sooooo much!!
Robby and I are only 18 mnths apart. Growing up, we did EVERYTHING together. Everything, at least, that I could convince/force him to do with me. I even tried to "share" my fingers that I sucked and often would try to offer them to him when he was just a baby which probably resulted in me periodically choking my baby brother-- but it was all outta love!

A little older and we were inseparable. We loved to build forts in the woods, play soccer and basketball, play and act out lego wars, play "imaginary" (where we would pretend to be characters from various things ranging from star trek to x-men to captain planet or disney movies), catch minnows, and sometimes even ride bikes.

Except Robby hated riding bikes, especially after he ran into a pile of branches on his bike and got a huge black eye. After that, I would ride my bike and Robby would run along side me, my faithful companion. I think therefore that I am partly responsible for Robby growing up to become the award winning cross country runner that he is today...

We always had chores to do growing up, and we obviously had to get these done before we got to go out to play. Robby was never too interested in the cleaning thing, and I've never been to interested in the patience thing, so I would often do his chores with him (or for him) just so that he could come play with me sooner.
Robby was my best friend-- hopefully he still is, even though continents and oceans currently divide us. He put up with so much being my little brother. I used to beat him up and stuff or push him around, but he's such a sweet sweet guy that suddenly when he became bigger and stronger than me and I tried to push him around, he never retaliated, he'd just pin my arms down and make it so I couldn't keep fighting him.

I also knew when it was time to stop teasing Robby because when he got really frustrated he would stick his tongue out and bite it- when he would do that, I knew that I'd pushed him far enough.Robby is the clown in our family. He could entertain us and make us all laugh like no else. I have so many memories of sitting around the dinner table, and Robby just making us crack up. Especially mom. I'd be tattling to mom about something that Robby had done that was very deserving of punishment, and he'd have my mom laughing before she could even correct him. That used to drive me crazy, but I was also laughing by the end too.

Rob is playful but doesn't really like playing a lot of games. He's one of the only guys I know who worked as a nanny for two toddlers for a summer and the parents and the kids loved him.
When Robby was in 4th grade and I was in 6th grade, my mom home-schooled us for a year. We would watch Shakespeare movies every Friday and play badminton in our front yard and steal change out of my dad's coin jar and go buy candy all in dimes from Wal-Mart or burgers from Burger King (biking/running the whole way there) and then go eat our plunder in our fort in the woods.

Robby is afraid of the dark and afraid of heights and spiders and strange food and touchy-feely women, but otherwise he's one of the bravest people I know.

Robby was always a lot more social than either Katy or I. Robby has friends every where he goes. People are just drawn to him. Not out of awe or fearful respect but because he has this sincere core to him that is honest and sensitive and brilliant and fantastic.
That's one of the reasons I know he's an awesome missionary. He loves people, and I think people can see that in him. He's an assistant to the president down in Brazil and works his butt off.

I was always so amazed by his deep and steady testimony he would get up and bear every fast Sunday when we were teenagers. When I would oscillate between my valiance and doubts, Rob was always there with his deep, monotone voice sharing that he knew the gospel was true.Robby was the one who taught me my appreciation for rap music which he would play blaring out of our purple mini-van that he drove every morning to high school. He also taught me that shoe design was a supreme art form. He bought me my first pair of pumas for my 19th birthday and took me on a date to Ruby Tuesday's.
He was also my prime dance partner for all of our o-so-awesome (lame) stake dances-- he was the life of the party, always. He always hated my boyfriends, but he liked Steve. He defended my honor once at scout camp when one of my former boyfriends talked smack about me and said some other girl was prettier than me. That guy never messed with us again!
Robby and I played on the same intermural soccer team at BYU, and he named us the Unicorns and was able to totally rock this t-shirt that Steve designed for us. And he bought me my pink soccer ball.
One year at our boot camp styled soccer camp, we had a coach from like Norway or somewhere, and he saw what a focused and dedicated individual that Rob was and would almost daily tell our team, "If I could I would gather up all my money and gold and invest it in RUbert. Rubert is gonna go places in his life."
Granted, he was a pretty strange man, but I know he was picking up on what was essentially Robby. Good attitude, never straying, solid, Robert Capener Meldau.
Robby comes home from his mission in July, and I can't wait. See, the thing that KILLS me is he still hasn't met my baby. Ahh! It breaks my heart that she's never had the chance to laugh and giggle with her Uncle Robby! But she'll be like 16 mnths old by the time he gets back. That's hardly even a baby anymore. More like a toddler.

We have a little "Who Loves Baby?" book and one whole page is dedicated to her Uncle Robby.
So if there are any single, early 20's mormon girls out there, heads up! Rob'll be back at BYU Fall of 2008. take note.

I love you, Rob.