What we do at home
- PHOTO: RASMUS WENG KARLSEN
- STYLING: Agnes Bucht / Holidays Agency
When the world is upside down, Annelise Hartmann Eskesen, who is nine months pregnant, is busy entertaining her two-year-old daughter and stays positive by embracing the time at home with her family. The very Scandi-chic writer and her husband, fashion photographer Rasmus Weng Karlsen, are lucky, and have had the opportunity to move to their cabin outside of Copenhagen where maintaining a sense of normalcy has been easier than in the city.
After getting a hold of pieces from H&M’s spring 2020 collections, we asked Rasmus to document a day in the growing family’s life during lockdown. Meet Annelise and two-year-old Eva, who’s eagerly expecting the arrival of a baby brother.
HOW HAS THE LOCKDOWN AFFECTED YOUR FAMILY?
”It has been difficult to both take care of our daughter and get work done. We’ve tried to make a schedule for the working days but it hasn’t been very efficient, actually it has been pretty tough. After my maternity leave started recently, things have gotten easier and now I only have to focus on Eva. On the bright side of all this, we have spent much more time together than we would have otherwise and that has been good for all of us before the arrival of the new baby.”
HOW DO YOU STAY POSITIVE?
”I’m not so nervous about getting the virus myself. I’m more concerned that my 93-year-old grandfather will catch it, or my husband which would mean he can’t be with me when I give birth. So, I try to be very careful and wash my hands a lot.”
WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS TO OTHER WOMEN WHO HANDLE PREGNANCY, A TODDLER, AND THE ON-GOING CRISIS?
“Try not to worry too much and just embrace the time you get to spend together as a family. Our daughter talked a lot about her daycare at first, but she has been so happy just being around both her parents at the same time all day long, getting a lot of attention and a lot of snacks. And so have we.”
HOW DO YOU KEEP HER ENTERTAINED WHEN PRESCHOOL AND PLAYDATES ARE CANCELLED?
“We have been reading a lot of books! Eva is getting better at paying attention to longer texts and I think her language skills have improved a lot during these months. We also spend a lot of time in the garden — making bonfires, playing, and going to the beach. And we have baked — not always successfully — several times a week which is something we wouldn’t usually have time to do. We have also re-discovered some old TV favourites from when we were kids, mostly Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking and Emil of Lönneberga.”
WHAT ARE THE FIRST THINGS YOU’LL DO WHEN THE CRISIS IS OVER?
“Hug our friends! Visit my grandfather in his home and not only at a distance and let Eva hug him again. And go somewhere nice with Eva and her little brother when he arrives.”
