My friends sent this one out to celebrate their daughter’s first birthday. Sense of humor, yes?

Remember, do what YOU want to do and the rest will fall in line.

photo: The Macs

Before we get all in a tizzy about first birthday parties and the cuteness you are about to behold, allow me to confess that I think the first birthday party is optional. Parents doing something momentous to celebrate their own first year of parenthood also seems like a fine idea (first overnight away?) and well, if baby is sleeping at home or at Grandma’s house, terrific.

Ok, now that’s out of the way. Ideas from around the web:

Invitation

This one is from tinyprints.

This one is from minted.com

and this one is from Etsy

Electronic invitations are obviously cheaper, greener, but frankly not as gush-worthy cute as the ones you’ll find to buy online. I couldn’t get over my own obsession with having a mailed invitation as a keepsake, so I put one together on Shutterfly when Julian turned one. Kid #2? She probably got an email. I don’t even remember.

Food

Go crazy with homemade, thematic snacks a la Martha Stewart or order pizza, make a fruit rainbow platter and call it a day. Since your baby and his “friends” may have a limited menu, it’s hard to please everyone. My personal go-to for parties at my house is my local taqueria. I order a pint of black beans, grilled chicken, spanish rice, and carnitas. We put out tortillas, cheese, salsa, and guacamole. Everyone can make their own burrito and the babes can eat black beans, rice and shredded cheese with their fingers. In the backyard, please! Add some bowls of diced fruit for color.

Decoration
If you read a lot of Internetz, you know that a decorated birthday buffet table with printed signs is all the rage.  Don’t let this make you feel inadequate, but I am posting a few pictures that none of us can ever live up to — because we are hosting a party and have a 12-month old to take care of!

John and Sherry at YoungHouseLove provided complete explanations on their printed food cards at baby Clara’s first birthday.

Theme
The site One Charming Party is a great resource if you want an amazingly beautiful, coordinated party. It’s an online store that sells party plans which detail the decorations, food, activities, and more for a number of different themes from superhero to mermaid to country fair-themed.

This is a preview of the 50-page manual you receive as a pdf with all your instructions, including cupcake toppers and invitation templates.

For one-year olds, I am most in favor of a simple theme, such as their first initial or polka dots because really, are they passionate about Dora or football yet? Unlikely. I met a professional party planner who told me that children’s books are her favorite source of inspiration for a theme. I like the intent, and the Hungry Caterpillar party pictured above is beautiful, but it seems overwhelmingly complicated.

Source: fowlsinglefile.blogspot.com via Kaci on Pinterest

Three do-able decorations

Now that I’ve intimidated inspired you with pictures that are literally out of Martha Stewart’s media empire, I leave you with three ideas that won’t break the bank or your back when it comes to adding pizzaz to your party.

1. Rainbow streamers above the door. Wendy made this special doorway for Augie’s birthday and it’s delightfully simple.

Source: wendolonia.com via Whitney on Pinterest

 

2. A string of balloons. I always hit the party store and get a bunch of balloons on the morning of my kid’s parties. They fill up any dull space in your house or yard and toddlers go nuts for them. (They are also terrible choking hazards, so keep them up high and monitor any interaction with balloons and one-year olds closely.)  This one is from the Young House Love first birthday party.

3. Pinwheels. Buy them at a party store, dollar store, or toy store — or make them if you are super crafty — and use them as decorations. My cousin stuck 20 store-bought pinwheels in the grass to create a festive border for her son’s party at a park. Then, send them home with the kids as favors. Double duty!

Source: deckthehalls-christmas.blogspot.com via Whitney on Pinterest

Source of letter “E” party: marthastewart.com via Ellen on Pinterest

Do you have any easy first birthday party ideas to share?

One year olds will make anything a toy — like that tube of butt cream or disposable coffee cup you keep trying to throw away — but since those don’t make the best birthday presents, we have some ideas for you. Here are our favorite go-to best gifts for a one-year old:

If you want a gift for under $10, this Playskool shape sorter is my fave. I’ve purchased it about five times for my own kids and small friends after testing others.

Need somebody smaller to love? Toddlers of all genders love to cuddle up with dolls. This one’s a cutie and less than $20. You can find African-American, Hispanic, or Asian dolls from JC Toys in the same general price range.

My little guys love to push a baby in a stroller like this one. There are several models for about $20. Baby beds and other accessories are a good bet.

Speaking of WHEELS, boys and girls love vehicles. Green Toys makes their popular dump truck in two flavors to suit your preferences for about $25. The trucks are super durable and made from recycled milk jugs so I’m willing to pay a little more.

Whitney’s kids always had fun pushing around play food or anything at all in this adorable and durable shopping cart from Melissa & Doug (about $50).

Another big hit from Whitney’s family, this ball pounder from Melissa + Doug teaches cause and effect, fun with balls, and the joy of whacking things. Just keep it far from your glass coffee table, ok? It retails for less than $20.

This Radio Flyer wagon is so well-loved at my son’s daycare that I wish we had it at home. Kids take turns riding and pushing. If you don’t have a friend to drive around, your teddy bear will also enjoy the ride (Or more likely, my left shoe and our remote control).

Related:
Clutter-free gifts for babies and toddlers
First birthday party ideas
Favorite ride-on toys for toddlers and wobblers

Taking pictures of new standers, cruisers, and walkers is most adorable from the backside. Allow me to demonstrate.

Until our first kids turned four, my mom’s group held a yearly joint birthday party for our babies, in addition to their own private birthday parties. When they turned two, I volunteered to do favors because the magnets I did the year before were such a hit.

The two-year old party favor was Mom’s Group Trading Cards.

What you need:

• Current pictures and stats: Ask the moms in your group to email you a photo of their child and a few trivia facts.
• The trading cards: Purchase business cards that go in an ink jet printer. Avery makes a product that creates eight cards per sheet.

How to make them:

• Use the Word template that goes with your printable business cards. It says the number on the package.
• Input text and images into each card space. I put the child’s name in larger type and then the birthday and factoids in smaller type.
• Feel free to use my template to get started. We had 11 children, so I had to use two sheets. You can change the colors and fonts to suit your tastes. The cards shown at the top of this post are from the same template after fiddling with the fonts.
• Now, print a full set for each family at your party.

At the party:

Shuffle all the cards together. Pass out the same number of cards as a complete set. Some people will get doubles or triples of one baby and none of another baby. Tell the guests to begin trading.

We had parents walking around saying “I have two Theos. I need an Ava. Who has an Ava?” Totally awesome.

For your 52nd weekly challenge, we invite you to pat yourself on the back — You have a ONE YEAR OLD! The celebration is for you.

If you are inviting others to celebrate the big ONE with you, make some plans for it. Make it easy on yourself by delegating food and decorations to anyone who volunteers to help.

Since your baby won’t understand the event, traditional birthday party activities are completely optional. We let our guests know that the birthday boy would not be opening gifts in front of them and that his nap began promptly at 3:30 (whether or not guests were present).

My friend Christine honored this milestone by having dinner with her husband and hiring a babysitter. Heather threw a blowout camping trip for Holden (I mean herself) and attended an adults-only swanky Oscars party in honor of Milo.

This collection of super cute first birthday party ideas gives more inspiration on planning a party to suit your style.

Baby too young to be planning a birthday party? Go choose another challenge!

Grammy tries to read to wiggly gigglers

As your next weekly challenge, we’re sharing a favorite activity from our book, The Rookie Mom’s Handbook:

In the long run, Grandma, baby and Mom and Dad will all look forward to this annual tradition. Since you’re still a rookie, however, do this to the degree you feel comfortable.

How it works: You and your partner plan an overnight trip. It might just be to a hotel in a nearby city. Your baby’s grandparents come stay at your place, saving you the trouble of packing up your baby’s things. Train them on usage of the car seat and the coffeemaker and LET GO.

Encourage Grandma and Grandpa to establish special traditions with your child.

Add a night to Camp Grandma each year so that you take a two-night trip next year, and by the time your child is fourteen, dear Grandma will get a two-week fill of adolescent merriment.

If you’re a rookie grandma, we recommend The Granny Diaries to head off potential power struggles with rookie moms such as ourselves (because we know we can be difficult — sorry about that!). Here’s our review.

Are you ready to leave your baby for the night? Tell us about it!

Like they used to say on TV, membership has it’s privileges. Both of the Bay Area children’s museums that I have been to are part of a consortium of Children’s Museums that have reciprocal memberships. This means that if you get a one-year membership at Habitot in Berkeley, for example, you can go to the Discovery Museum in Sausalito for a significant discount. Also, if you travel to a place with another children’s museum, you are totally in.

The point, however, is not the membership. The point is that these are destinations with rooms for crawlers. Usually they have mats on the floor or different textures and large scale shapes that babies and young toddlers can put their grubby hands on, in and through. The Discovery Museum Tot Room, for example, has at least four waterbed-type areas for babies.

If you live near one of these places, and buy a membership, consider it a mommy meet market. Go there when you and baby are feeling lonely, let down your hair, and have a juice box or two.

Your 47th weekly challenge is to seek out a children’s museum and make a special trip there with your baby. Tell us, how was it? (Baby too young for this outing? Start at the beginning.)

Photos: Minnesota Children’s Museum;  Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco

My friend Mary (who had her son Del in the same hospital the day after I had Julian) gave this idea to our moms group. She said that 13-month old Del loves the pet store where he can check out the animals, especially the birds.

Does your baby love animals? Mine really did (and still do) but when we went to the Zoo, I found that he couldn’t really see the large animals that were so far away from him in their habitats. A visit to Petco where he could get right next to the turtle tank and mouse cage was just as much fun — and closer to my house!

To kill two birds with one stone (no-offense, bird lovers), you could be a really nice friend and offer to pick up pet food for that post-partum friend of yours, meanwhile taking your older baby on a super fun and free outing.

This is your 37th weekly challenge for rookie moms. Baby not old enough to appreciate the fish tank? Start at the beginning.

When I read about the service, Flipclips.com, in Real Simple magazine a few years ago, I fell in love with the idea. During a long nap I had to myself, I hung out on the computer messing with the video clips I have of Julian.

They let you upload a video and then make some selections to customize your flipbook. It costs $6 and apparently the length and format of video you can take on your digital camera is sufficient.

I love this idea as a way to capture physical milestones like sitting up (make sure to end with the falling-over part), clapping, or pulling up to a stand. The resulting flip books I received were small enough for the grandmothers to carry in their purses. Plus it allows them to not only say “how cute is my grandson?” but also “how clever is my [step] daughter [in-law]?”

Some videos that I already had that were  Flipclips-worthy were: bouncing like a crazy man in his Jumparoo (month 7), smiling while swinging at the playground (month 5), playing peekaboo with Ryan’s boxer shorts (month 10).

This is a crafty gift idea, posted by request.

I recently made a set of magnets for everyone in my Mom’s Group. I presented them in a stack with a little ribbon around them. I chose to do 1.5 inch squares, but you can do whatever floats your boat.

Set of DIY baby magnets

Obviously, for your parents, your baby would be the preferred theme. But assuming you know people with other interests beside your child, this is a clever gift for anyone. Some ideas: you could grab images from Amazon and create a display of kitchen appliances for a cook; surf the web for punk band logos for the nostalgic college roommate; or create your own magnetic poetry with just a Word document.

Here’s a snapshot of my fridge with three of Julian’s little buddies holding up some very important phone numbers.

Here’s the affirmation of the month: It’s hard to listen to whining! No one will argue with you on that. In moments of frustration, tell your toddler that, and don’t take the whining personally.

Sometimes we feel like we can’t complain about motherhood. But we can describe it. If someone asks how it’s going, you shouldn’t feel guilty about making a truthful statement like “It’s hard to listen to whining” or “I wish he could tell me what he wants.”

So when your baby is screaming her head off and you want to say, “Would you please shut up?!” instead try giving her a more thorough explanation. “I’m trying to watch Jon Stewart on the DVR, and I cannot hear what he is saying over your shrieks!”