Dictionary, anyone?

We've been using the Better Chinese program, mostly online for learning Mandarin. Today, my parents visited for the first time after their return from a trip to Florida. I'd had a bunch of things shipped to them while they were there, so the Better Chinese print materials, CDs and games arrived at our house today. I'm so impressed.
I also received a DVD I'd ordered called "Play and Learn Chinese with Mei Mei" which was a huge hit, especially with my daughter.
While I was preparing supper tonight, I heard something really amusing. Both the older kids were watching the video, but my daughter was talking--I'm not sure to whom; sometimes she carries on little conversations with imaginary partners--and she said, "Le monstre à manger le gâteau." Throughout dinner, she carried on in French, and was quite intent on educating grandma and grandpa about the meanings of words in French, but also came up with a variety of things to define in Chinese.
I have just one frustration. I am often called upon by my children to serve as a walking French dictionary, which is fine, because I often know the things they're asking, and if I don't, we've always got our trusty French dictionary.
Now, they're starting to do the same with Mandarin, and I almost never know the answers, which is also fine, but how does one look them up? I'm really not good enough with Pinyin (the romanization of Chinese) to guess at the pronunciation of words. I suppose that will come, in time. We have already started our classes in Mandarin, but I'm finding I'm learning just as much or more from the things I'm doing with the kids.
Actually, it's interesting, because at our first lesson, I was much less overwhelmed than my husband, who hadn't had the same opportunity to interact with the kids' materials.
Back to the dictionary, I guess we'll have to make ourselves some Mandarin-speaking friends really soon after we move so we can find our own walking dictionaries!