Stress Case Meets Chaos...who will win?

So has anyone ever seen the Simpson's episode where there's a new gym teacher who's obsessed with the game "bombardment"? Everyday Bart's class goes to gym only to get pommeled by dozens (possibly hundreds) of dodge balls. I had never thought about how that might feel...until i started working with thirteen 18 month old children =). Everyday seems to dole out a new challenge- this one's a biter, there are the bullies, these need to be cuddled, these ones are teething and cranky, etc. I have to say though, no matter how frustrated I get my heart melts with every adorable smile, every hug, and every peel of laughter. I have found a renewed sense of strength, so much so that even those "TERRIBLE" moments turn into laughing opportunities by the end of the day. Like for example: I am EXTREMELY conservative with the finger paint. There are still a good portion of our kids that will eat the paint, and though i know it isn't toxic I still cannot stomach the sight of it. So I was getting some things done and left my assistant in charge of things. Well...she's what you call liberal with paint. So the next thing I know I turn around and there is paint EVERYWHERE, and I mean everywhere. The kids are covered and trying to get out of their seats, the table has puddles of paint everywhere, and even the floor has little dobs and hand prints. I nearly freaked! How were we supposed to get all of the kids clean without any one of them escaping. Needless to say it was a long and tedious process to get them all taken care of and get the room back into some semblance of order. But at the end of the day do you know what I remembered most: Three of our little boys looked like members of the Blue Man Group and they loved it, one of our little girls who hates to get messy actually painted, and two children who normally don't get along were painting each other and laughing. In short Chaos won.