Happy birthday Princess Isabella!

Today Princess Isabella turns two. Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe is Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, and was born at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet) on April 21st, 2007. Isabella is third in the order of succession to the throne after Prince Christian and she was christened at Fredensborg Palace Chapel on 1 July 2007. Early last November Anna Johannesen and Jan Bergman of Billed Bladet reported that Princess Isabella began visiting the same day nursery Christian attends to become accustomed to it. Queen Louise's Day Nursery (Dronning Louises Børnehus) is in Fredensborg, not far from Chancellery House, and Crown Princess Mary took her to become familiar with the idea of nursery school and also the routines. According to the head of the nursery, "Princess Isabella has been to visit and say hello so she can get to know us and feel secure before she starts in the day nursery. The introduction period is important both for the child and the parents, but also for us, because that gives us all the best start," said Helle Zacho. Anna Johannesen later reported (Billed Bladet no.45, 2008) that Isabella has started in the Sprouts. Just as Christian did, she begins in the room with the youngest children, which the day nursery calls the Sprouts. There are about ten children in the Sprouts, while Christian has of course moved on to an older group. And just as Frederik and Mary did with Christian, they started out slowly with short visits to the kindergarten before leaving Isabella there for a longer period. All the children in the kindergarten bring their own lunch and because it is an integrated institution the children also interact between different age groups. This means that Isabella and Christian will often eat lunch together. Last November it was Mary on her own who took Isabella for her first visit to the kindergarten because Frederik was out hunting. That meant Mary had to decline an invitation to go to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art with Queen Margrethe and Princess Marie for the 'women's program' at the time. From the start most will recall there was a bit of a fuss at Isabella's birth, known then before her christening as 'Lille prinsesse' or as Lillepigen (little girl=lil-pea-'n) by her parents, since she was the first girl born in the Danish royal family since Queen Margrethe's youngest sister Anne-Marie was born in 1946. Prince Henrik, always keen on having lots of grandkids, pronounced himself very happy at the birth of his fourth grandchild and is no doubt eagerly looking forward to his fifth, due imminently. The Queen also expressed her joy and was seen walking across to Chancellery House to visit after Isabella arrived home. Mary and Frederik held a little welcome party for family and friends to meet the new member of the family a week after she was born. The nanny engaged to help care for Isabella was Ann-Alicia Thunbo but she has long since left the service of the family to marry (Christian's original nanny has also returned to her career as a paediatric nurse). The wish of Frederik and Mary to be the most important figures in their children's lives has come to pass, with nannies being familiar carers when necessary, but not their primary carers.
From the start Isabella has been a traveller, going to New York while Mary was still breastfeeding for a Creative Nation working visit in September 2007, she has been to Miami twice, her first visit to Australia, a couple of visits to Switzerland and various private visits including to Sweden. Some other things of note, Isabella vomited on a Se&Hør reporter at 5 months, she has a training route for joggers near Fredensborg named for her, the Princess Isabella Route, one of 500 such routes inaugurated by DR, Danish Athletics, local municipalities, Danish Physiotherapy and the Danish government, we learned she can hum all of Frère Jacques (from Anna Johannesen while in Australia) and she is called Bella by the family.

A gallery to mark Isabella's birthday:



Photos © Hanne Juul, Jesper Sunesen, Peter Grosen, All over, Birger Storm/BilledBladet, Niels Henrik Dam/Avisen.dk, SeogHør, Kjeld Navntoft/Getty/AFP, Jens Nørgaard Larsen/AFP/Getty Images, Steen Brogaard, DayLife, Billed Bladet, HerogNa.no, Henning Bagger/Berlingske Tidende, Kurt Kammersgaard/Radio Humleborg

Crown Prince & Crown Princess website gallery - after Isabella's birth, April 2007
Crown Prince & Crown Princess website gallery - Isabella's first birthday

Meanwhile, last Friday the Crown Prince Family participated in a local nursery school activity with other Fredensborg parents and kids at the Queen Louise Day Nursery attended by Christian and Isabella. It is a tradition to go in procession to visit the statue of the patron and namesake of the day nursery, Queen Louise, located in Fredensborg Castle Park, obviously aided by some dress-ups to add to the occasion. Queen Louisa was the consort to Frederik VIII and so is the great-great-great grandmother to Christian and Isabella:
LocalAvisen.dk 'Prins og Prinsessen gik i Samba-optog' - The Prince and the Princess went in a procession
About 200 children and the adults from the nursery school in Endrup went in a procession on Friday morning through Fredensborg town to the palace park.
Present in the parade were both Prince Christian and Princess Isabella with both their parents as well as the family's dog.
The Crown Prince Couple both looked like ordinary parents and were able to stay that way.
There were not too many who discovered the two.
It was busy in Fredensborg because Queen Margrethe had an official reception for three new ambassadors at Fredensborg Castle.
The ambassadors were transported from the King's suite at Fredensborg Station to the castle in a royal coach with a Hussar Guards procession to accompany them.
Humbleborg Online 'Samba optog gennem Fredensborg' - Samba procession through Fredensborg
About 200 children and parents from the [Queen Louise] Day Nursery in Endrup were in a procession through the pedestrianised street of Fredensborg with a route to the Castle park.
The goal was the statue of Dronning Louise which it has become a tradition to visit for all the children and a number of parents this Friday morning.
There was some confusion in the pedestrianised street when there was a meeting with the Hussars procession for the ambassadors attending a reception at Fredensborg Castle.
Among the many parents who participated along with the many children was the Crown Prince and Crown Princess and you could see that the Crown Prince had thrown away the crutches in favour of a "guide dog".

TV2 article 'Tillykke: Prinsesse Isabella 2 år' - Congratulatons: Princess Isabella is two
Billed Bladet 'Tillykke Isabella - to år i billeder' - Congratulations Isabella - two years in pictures


Billed Bladet gallery large gallery of Isabella from birth
Se og Hør gallery

Thanks Muhler! Thanks Valentine! Thanks jema! And, thanks mls and cph!