Control...

Once the kids outnumbered the adults in the Hsiung household, Yvonne and I learned very early on that we could only control so much. This was especially true once the boys started walking. We go to great lengths to make sure none of the kids are in any grave danger but the bottom line is if they split in three directions simultaneously, one will always get away. We can either stress out about it (and still not be able to do much about it) or just hope they don't get into anything really bad or break anything...we opt for the latter.

The nighttime wash up routines can be real crazy (but fun) when it's just Yvonne and I. In general, Yvonne handles the washing while I do the drying and dressing. Rachel always goes last because she's more independent and can often help us corral the boys. The real fun begins when Rachel is in the bath, one guy is getting dried off and dressed, and the other is COMPLETELY FREE to roam around our room while my hands are full.

Tonight, Daniel was all done and dressed while I had Nathan on the changing table getting him dried off. Because of the layout of our room, the shortness of Daniel, and the furniture in there, I only had a partial view of him as he buzzed around the room. With my hands busy and my back to the rest of the room, I subconsciously perk up my ears to hear what Daniel is up to. I hear stuff like my nightstand drawer opening and closing (waiting to hear him shrieking from getting his fingers caught...but that doesn't happen), the sound of my cellphone flipping open and shut, and then more drawers opening and closing. In my peripheral vision rolled up socks are getting thrown around followed by giggles. All this time I might catch a glimpse of him darting back and forth happy as a clam. The next time I see him he's holding my cellphone up to his ear walking around and saying, "Wei? Wei? (the product of having a Mandarin speaking nanny)." He then disappears into the bathroom portion of our room...out of sight.

By now Nathan is done so I put him down and go track down Daniel. Does Nathan follow me into the bathroom? No way. He somehow gets the door open and he's off and running down the hall.

This kind of stuff might have stressed us out at one point in time but not now...not anymore. We actually get a kick out of it now. If you have young kids and feel like trying this sometime, let your kid run around behind you while you're blindfolded and standing in a corner. It's loads of fun.