a tale of 200 children

I cannot believe how tired I am right now. I feel like the energy has been sapped from every inch of my body and I can barely get up from this chair because my legs are just numb and sore.

Never in my life have I seen about 100 children crowding around in one level of a building screaming and shouting and jumping. It was utter mayhem I tell you. 

My group of little tots were this cute but noisy bunch of 4-6 year old girls whom M and I officially christened out babies because they're the youngest performers out of all the children. 

Teacher, can I eat my biscuits?

Gail pulled my hair!

My jacket is itchy!

I can't tie my shoes!

Can we go in stage now now now now now?

I want to go to the toilet!

I don't know where my hairband is.

Teacher, my leotard is with my mummy. 

Teacher, my mummy is going to see me dance today!

Teacher I like your scarf!

I love them babies, but my voice has gone hoarse from raising my voice over the utter noise they're making to get them to keep quiet.

Boys and girls, I want to see my two lines right now. Where are my two lines? If I don't see my two lines, you will not get to perform on stage later. So get into your two lines now and put your fingers to your lips.

But teacher, you said we can't touch our lips because of our lipstick.

Then put your finger near your lips and do not make any noise. You walk with your feet. Not your mouths, understand? 

Tiny tots, but intelligent tots. I was particularly attached to this incredibly cute adorable girl called Kate, a 3-year-old cutie who comes with her sister and practically joined at the hip because they do everything together. She doesn't speak much and can't walk fast enough so I literally have to carry her round the level whenever we're rushing to go from one place to another. She gave me an utter fright today. I walked 10 of my girls to the incredibly crowded makeup room and had to rush upstairs again to  discuss something with another of the dresser about an arrangement we made with each other for one of the kids, so I left them in the care of the makeup artist. Bad mistake but he himself was busy. When I came downstairs, I noticed that Gail wasn't with Kate anywhere. I did a headcount and counted only9 tiny heads and my heart thumped with fright. I counted again but counted only 9 of my girls. When I questioned Gail, she just stared at me with her huge glossy eyes and started walking around and calling her sister's name and I thought I was about to have a panic attack. I did a quick check outside to make sure she wasn't running around near the toilets, so I ran back upstairs to get the girls' dance teacher, this lovely Southern woman whom they affectionately call Miss Tara and who for some reason, sounds strangely like Miley Cyrus and we hurried down to search the makeup room again. When we got back to the girls, we fund Kate standing innocently there! Miss Tara questioned her:

"Hi Kate! You were missing! Where did you go?"

(stares at Miss Tara with her big glossy eyes)

"Kate, were you hiding somewhere in this huge big room?

(nods)

"Where were you hiding, my darling?"

(runs to the cupboard in the corner of the room, opens the door and points inside)

Oh God seriously I was just about to scream I just apologized to Miss Tara for the trouble and went up to Kate and gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek and shooed her back in the line to get her blush done. 

What a fright it was because missing children are the scariest. They don't respond to you when you call their names sometimes, because they just turn and stare at you instead of raising their hand and acknowledging us. Still, Kate's a sweetheart. So anyway I got them all back upstairs and put Kate down for a nap because her eyes were drooping dangerously low and she looked so precious just lying on the floor next to her bag and shoes and looking at me with her sleepy eyes. I told the girls around her to make sure no one else disturbs her and to let me know if anyone wakes Kate up while she was sleeping and they all took on the job with such stout eagerness. 

So my tiny tots dance a weird "jazz for babies" number to Happy Boys and Happy Girls. It looked like aerobics because it was mainly lifting arms, waving them around and getting on the floor and back up again. But you can't expect 3 year old babies to do splits and shanay turns. But it still very very very cute because they all looked so happy just hearing the music and dancing to it. I couldn't stop smiling when I was backstage and watching from the sides and dancing with them to prompt them whenever they looked to us at the sides for reassurance and waving their short arms and tottering around on the spot in their yellow suits. After their entire performance, they stayed in the room and started playing London Bridge. It was honestly the cutest thing I ever saw. 30 girls in yellow tops and fluffy skirts making bridge with their hands and running under each other's arms and singing London Bridge in their high pitched voices. Of course I had only known the first version of the nursery song and can;t go being "my fair lady" because the only version of London Bridge is sung by Fergie though I hardly think they'll understand the sexual conniptions behind the song

How come every time you come around
my London Bridge wanna come down like
London, London, London, wanna go down like 
London London London, we join' down like. 

So that was in the first interval. The second interval was so incredibly hectic for me because I was responsible for quick change for this girl called Holly - the Caucasian girl I was telling you about - and little boy Keyan, who only had a timeframe of 3 minutes to get into her costume before her net item began. I got one of the male crew members to go backstage with me with their costumes so he can change Keyan and apparently we (the crew members) have been warned that Holly can be tiny little demanding diva. When Holly finished her first item, we were scrambling look around for her and then we saw Miss Tara running with her and holding Holly's hand. When she approached us, we started stripping her costume off, but not before I noticed that she was whimpering and then I asked her what was wrong. She told me she fell on the way and had cut her lips and then burst into these screechy cries and freaked me out and I tried my best to get her to calm down. She was asking persistently for a tissue to dab her lip because she thinks its bleeding (she was right) and when we dressed her, I sat her down on the chair and firmly told her to stop her tears and comforted her but she kept insisting that she couldn't go on stage anymore because everyone will see her lip. I promised her its only a small little cut and no one will be able to see it but she couldn't stop sobbing, so the stage manager stepped it and got fierce and firm with her and Holly quietened down (I'm sorry but I can't be him - I don't know how and I feel wretched for telling a child off!). Miss Tara then walked away to get the kids in line and left Holly on the chair for a bit to get her act together. I gave Holly a hug hug and promised her that no one would be able to see her lip and had her come to me so I can help change her costume again for her next item. 

When changing for her next item, I could definitely tell why the production and senior crew members called her a demeaning tot. She was telling people what to do and where her things was and how to do them. Its a big difference from all the other girls because they ask for permission and show things to you and basically just obey whatever you tell them. But Holly's different. She's more spirited and more direct and unfortunately, extroverted tots like her don't mingle well with Asian adults. 

You need to tie my shoes first!

I have to put on my leotard first!

My socks are in the wrong position!

I want a tissue for my lip!

Other than that, she's pretty quiet whenever her dresser and I are just shoving her tights and leotard up. I still think she's nice one. I mean, we had a nice chat in the toilet! She was telling me excitedly about how her pink outfit is her favorite costume and who would be coming to watch her perform. She's going to grow up to be 30% Regina George I can tell you. 

But anyway, I was upset when the final curtain call came and all the crew members came out and bowed and all the kids starting cheering and jumping and shouting "Teacher! Teacher! Teacher!". I was sad when we were packing the kids bags and lining them up and taking them outside to the foyer to their parents. I was sad when I was walking with M to the foyer and spotted one of the girls, another 3 year old whom I was in charge of watching over - screaming and jumping and waving "Teacher! Teacher!" and then pulling my scarf and showing me the bun she was eating to me, with her parents thanking me for helping her (what did I do? All I did was kiss and hug her because she's so adorable!) but hey, it's a challenge managing 50 kids in one room. Or rather, 50 4-year-old toddlers running around. But she's one of the 3 year olds so I gave her special attention and personally dressed them both, checked their bags, lunch boxes, put them to their naps and carried them and ran to the stage to perform. So yes. You're welcome. 

And I was sad when the stage manager debriefed us and we all parted ways. All the volunteers had gotten friendly with each other this past 2 days because we had to work so closely with each other and help each other mind the children and all. EEEEKS. I'm so glad I signed up for this volunteering stint. I admit. I wanted in only because of the dance card, but after helping backstage and interacting the kids, I started thinking differently about it and can honestly say I really enjoyed working backstage and helping everyone and meeting new people and tending to the children. 

Mind you I've not changed my mind about children. Unless they're cute Caucasian babies and remain at 3 years old with cute cheeks like my cutie pie, 3 year old Kate :D

I'm tired, but happy ;)