Fave Babes

Today was our last day at Romp n' Roll. It's true. It was a bitter-sweet goodbye. We will miss our coworkers (especially Malinda, Bella, and Herby), and we will miss our beautiful little kiddos and their awesome families. In honor of the babes, here are the pictures of the rest of the sweet little chilluns that I was so lucky to work with:
TuTu: definitely the heaviest baby at Romp n' Roll.....possibly the heaviest in China. Last week we had a bonding session where I just sat and rocked him and sang him Christmas songs for a solid 45 minutes. Love.

Harold: This babe is super cute and sweet and loves to listen to me read books. His mom and dad speak great English and we had lots of conversations about all sorts of things. Yesterday Harold's mama was telling me all about how she got a stocking and presents for Harold for Christmas and how she really wants to "create a Christmas environment" for him. (Note: this is not necessarily common in China) Love them.






Shuai Ran: This boy is so dang cute and smart. He would always walk into class and say "good morning Miss Theresa" (with a little prompting from Dad, of course). Gosh he is so stinking adorable!

Meng Meng: Ahhh my little singer. She sings the hello and goodbye songs perfectly. She's super shy and didn't really want to take her picture with me, but she is absolutely adorable and so sweet.

Gotta throw some more of Xiao Xiao in because he's just da bomb. His mom is so sweet and he is such a smartie!

Counting to 10 (in English)

Fei Fei is fairly new, but he's still rather quite adorable. 

Niu Niu (on the left) and Xiao Yu (on the right): These two girls are the best of friends. Today Niu Niu wasn't in class right at the beginning and Xiao Yu was very concerned about this. She kept saying Niu Niu? Niu Niu? We ask the kids who still needs to join us before we start class (Rompy - a big stuffed dog), but today when I asked who's missing, Xiao Yu said NIU NIU!!!!!!!!!!! Haha....so awesome. Also, I really wish I could video tape Xiao Yu in class. She's the most rambunctious little girl EVA and she runs screaming into the gym. She always has a giant smile on her face. Niu Niu is independent woman #1 and always has to do things herself. She has the sweetest little smile and I LOVE her fluffy pigtails!

This is what happens when you add one too many children to a picture hahahaha

Yu Zi wasn't in my class very much, but he's so stinking cute that I couldn't resist a picture with him!

Brownie Party!!

As our time here in China is coming to an end, we find ourselves having to say lots of goodbyes. We decided to say goodbye to the staff here at Romp n' Roll the most American way possible: with food. We had been talking about brownies in the office and Malinda asked us what they were....so we decided they needed to experience them first-hand. Fridays at the center are pretty quiet so we had ample time to have a brownie party!

I never thought I would make brownies in a toaster oven....

Our cute little goodbye notes/brownies

Quote: "I can make anything classy"

Mmmmmmm brownies

 Also, as this is our last weekend in China we find ourselves having to say goodbye to many of our little kiddos.
DouDou: this little boy gives me lots of love every time he comes to class. He's the biggest kid we have here at Romp n' Roll and he's an expert at maneuvering around, over, and through all the equipment in the gym. His parents are also awesome, I just love that whole family! Last week I took a picture with DouDou and today his parents surprised me with that picture in a cute little frame and a note from them saying Merry Christmas and they will miss me. It made me cry.

Cheesin'

Love this family!

Then there's QiQi. He's the happiest little boy I've ever met. He is also a very snuggly little bugger and is always down for a hug. In class when I want the kids to watch me very closely I tell them to put their "Miss Theresa goggles" on and I make circles with my hands and put them up to my eyes - QiQi is one of the only kids who will do it by himself and it's absolutely adorable. He's the perfect combination of all things adorable in a child: happy, smiley, giggly, snuggly, and of course a little bit chubby. Such a babe.

Showing me his Rompy stamps

Our relationship started by playing peek-a-boo, and now it's his favorite game to play with me.

After we took about a zillion pictures his mom said (in Chinese) "do you want Miss Theresa to leave?" He shook his head no and wrapped his little arms around my neck. Once again, I cried. I'm really going to miss this bundle of sunshine.

A couple more cute boys:

Haha NiuNiu, what a cheeseball

Precious little GuoGuo. The first time we met he headbutted me haha.

Check back tomorrow for the rest of my fave babes! 2 days until we begin our journey back to America!

It's Not a Party without Dumplings!

The countdown is coming to a close! This is the final week in China before we head home for Christmas! As such, we decided our last weekend should be spent by having another dumpling party. I'm going to try and make dumplings at home some day so I took very careful notes. Aside from the dumpling place that Chelsie and I go to, we haven't had much luck in finding delicious dumplings here, so having homemade ones is always a welcome treat! Herby, Vivian, and Queenie (with her pup DouDou) were the first to show up and they got right to work making the dough and pork filling. Yummmmmm.

The dough is the hardest part, but Vivian was a champ and kneaded it to perfection!

Fun fact: if you want your filling to be sticky, put one egg in the mixture.

The eggs froze in our REFRIGERATOR!

All 3 of them claimed that they didn't know how to make dumplings, but obviously they did because they turned out awesome! I think that, as a general rule, if you are Chinese then dumpling making is in your blood - it's an instinct. It was so great to see Queenie and little DouDou, we have missed them at the office!

Then it was time to eat! The dumplings were so delicious! Queenie even fried some of them and that was a special treat since Chelsie and I haven't had good fried dumplings since Wuhan!

The ultimate temptation......

We had so much fun with everyone! There was some shnugging....

 Some face-making....

 ...LOTS of playing with DouDou

The poor little guy had so much fun, he had to take a nap!

And at one point, Queenie called a boy she likes and all the girls were giggling and telling him to come over. I had a serious flashback to middle school........poor guy.

We had so so so so so much fun! The food was delicious and the company was fantastic - how much more can you ask for?

The whole gang! Bottom row, L to R: me, Herby, Queenie (with DouDou), Eva; Top row, L to R: Vivian, Chelsie, Stone, Candy

One final note.....these are the cups we drank out of:

On an awesome scale, these score a 10 out of 10. Oh China.......

There Were 10 in the Bed...

...and the little one said "roll over, roll over" so they all rolled over and one fell out. <-- This was one of my favorite books when I was little and now it's a song we sing at Romp n' Roll! This post is about nothing in particular but I figured that you, my loyal fans (not followers, not readers; fans), are probably getting restless and want something new to read. Do not fret, here it is.

Last week was one filled with many ordinary but remarkable things: the first snow of the season, drawing pictures, entertaining ourselves while at work, and hanging out with the kiddos. Wednesday-Friday we usually only have a couple classes in the morning, and thus have about 7 hours of the day to sit and twiddle our thumbs. Thus, we have come up with various time-wasters:
We draw pictures...

Artist: yours truly

Artist: Chelsie

We reinvent our signatures:

...we like to see what it would be like to have a moustache....

There's also quite a bit of napping that happens. Today I took a morning nap and an after-lunch nap. Kind of like a baby....

Don't hate me because my job is the easiest ever.

On Thursdays we have book club, which Chelsie and I take turns teaching. We read a book with all the kiddos, then do an art project that goes along with the book. I can't take any credit for the cute ideas we do - Chelsie worked in kindergarten and thus is awesome at this kind of stuff so she usually plans it.

Our most regular attendee of book club is Xiao Xiao (pronounced shao shao). He was one of our first members and is quite possibly my favorite child in China. He has the attention span of a 10 year-old and will sit and look at books with me for as long as he can. His favorite books are called "Baba Baba"....(baba means dad in Chinese) and I have no idea what they're about but I make up stories and tell them to him. Yesterday he came early for book club and I sat in the gym with him and read his baba baba books for what felt like an hour. His mom and dad both speak English and have clearly been working with him because he can count to 10, name lots of colors, and all the animals in the "brown bear, brown bear" book - in English. Keep in mind that this child is 2! He's very precious and sweet and I just love him.

Spending quality time with my fave boy

Last Wednesday and Thursday we were noticing that the sky was unusually grey and both Chelsie and I commented that if it looked like this in our respective hometowns, it would just snow. Chelsie even went so far as to say "there's just no point in it being so cold if it's not going to snow!" On Friday morning we woke up to......snow! The very first snow of the season! Even with as homesick and anxious for Christmas (in America) as I was...and am...the snow just managed to make me feel as cheerful as Santa's elves. There's just something magical about those little flakes floating down from the sky...they made Christmas seem so much closer and I couldn't help but watch the snow fall all day long from the window at work.

We found Little Red Riding Hood at the bus stop!

On a sad note...remember the baby I wrote about a few posts back, Jocelyn? Well, she and her parents headed back to Australia last week, Sunday was their last day. We really loved that little babe and it was nice to have parents around who spoke such excellent English, and we're pretty jealous that she's going to grow up in Australia! We'll miss you little girl!

Jocelyn worked really hard her whole life to grow a head of hair, and then her parents just shaved it off in preparation for their move to Australia, since it's summer there right now!

It's getting incredibly cold here and since I've spent the last 4 winters in Arizona, I'm not particularly fond of it! Any time we go out we wear 2 or 3 pairs of pants, a long sleeve shirt, a hoodie, and a winter coat, plus a scarf and gloves. The goal is to have as little exposed skin as possible.

The days are winding down here until I leave for Christmas. I have all my Christmas shopping done and have obtained some fabulous Chinese candy to share with the fam. How many days, you may wonder, until Chelsie and I head for America? Well, I'll tell you (in several different languages):

That's how many.