Balmex and Bandaids

Balmex and Bandaids, where would we mama's be with out these necessary items? Tonight as we were brushing our teeth for bed, Bren's teeth kept getting this white residue on it, I was perplexed...so I inspected the toothbrush, wondering what the heck was on it. Bren had evidently put balmex on it first, just a little, then put some toothpaste over top of it. I laughed for a minute, heard Joel laughing right along side of me, but could also hear him saying, how gross! As the girls were finishing up, I went into the tub/toilet part of our bathroom(it is a Jack and Jill style, a door closing off the sink from the other part) and found the box of hello kitty bandaids(just bought them last week), empty, with bandaid wrappers on the floor and bandaids discarded in the trash, or near it anyways(hey they tried). I was fuming(bandaids are expensive!!), upset that they used up all of them, upset that i forgot to put them up higher, upset that they had a few minutes to themselves and they got into the bandaids!!! I was ready to chew them out, when I heard....it's only bandaids and balmex, relax Francis. I wanted to cry, only Joel ever said relax Francis to me, I don't know if anyone knew that he used that phrase so often with me.....I know it was him reminding me to let the little things pass, to let the irritating moments just slide by and let the girls be girls for right now. These are the moments that I probably miss him the most, the things that I know he would have laughed at, been a little upset like I was but then laughed about it with me, and with that smirk on his face, the twinkle in his eyes, he would have said, "damn it they are to funny, who do they get it from" and he would keep laughing. I can hear his laugh right now, I miss his laugh so much. I remember a lot of moments like that, sitting in our living room on the couch just laughing about silly things they would say as they were fighting the "sleep monster" as we called it when papa was home. It is the little things like bandaids and balmex that make me remember that he is still with me.