12 Month Report - Lene and Steven

Thomas with a dressed-up Yanmei - autumn 2000

Yanmei infront of the Christmas tree - December 2000

Yanmei dressed up as a clown - January 2001

Twelve month report, March 2001 – Steven and Lene

A year has now passed since we were in China to collect Yanmei. She has continued the positive trends of the first six months, easily adapting to life in Scandinavia .

She is a very happy, charming and confident little girl with a strong sense of humour. She charms everybody that comes into contact with her and is liked and loved by friends and family.

During the last six months, she has concentrated on expressing herself through the Danish language. Today she understands more or less everything that is said to her, and is almost fluent in spoken Danish. Her use of the language is still a little bit behind Danish children of the same age, but she is catching up very quickly. She talks non-stop.

Since January 2^nd, Yanmei started in a half-day kindergarten. Here she also adapted very quickly and looks forward to going to the kindergarten each morning. She has a good contact with the other children who range from 3 to 6 years in age.

She goes to a musical play school together with her mother, where she loves to dance and singing children’s songs.

She is very creative when playing – she especially likes making imaginary food for the rest of the family, looking after her doll and dressing up. She also likes to ‘play’ the piano, draw and have stories read to her. She also watches children’s TV, especially simple animated stories. She likes copying adults – speaking in her toy mobile phone, cooking, ironing, sweeping etc.

She is very inquisitive. She opens drawers and cupboard doors wherever she is – at home, at friends’ houses and even in shops. She also likes to wander around alone. She keeps a distance from ‘strangers’ (e.g. friends visiting us) for a short time, but her shyness usually disappears very quickly and she addresses them directly. She also likes being with lots of people, where lots of different things are happening – especially if there are children. Despite her openness, she is very much aware of the fact that we are her parents and Thomas her brother.

She is very good with her hands and now runs, jumps, walks etc. at the same level as other children of her age. She has also learnt to cycle.

She has grown ca. 7-8cm during the year she has been in Denmark and has gained 3 kilo’s in weight (all during the last 6 months). Her hair has also grown below her ears, and she now wants to have long hair – as some of the other girls in the kindergarten.

She eats more or less everything that she is served, but especially likes cornflakes, rice, pasta, potatoes, cheese, fruit and biscuits.

She has her own room, where she sleeps each night. She sleeps well, occasionally waking during the night. Health wise she is very robust, not showing any signs of illness since she came to Denmark. She now loves having a bath, but does not want to go into a pool. She complains about having her hair washed.

All in all the settling in period has gone very well and Yanmei already functions within our family as if she has always been here.

Things we remember:

When Yanmei is eating and says “Uhhm this is nice”, what she really means is that she doesn’t like it and won’t eat any more!