Baby's First Birthday Party

party hats Every parent is excited when the first year anniversary of their child’s birth rolls around. Your baby's first birthday! The desire is to throw the biggest grandest celebration ever known in honor of this milestone. But be honest, the poor darling won’t even know what all the hoopla is about that first time around. But that doesn't mean you can't celebrate in a grand style. Just don’t stress yourself and your resources.

Celebrate simply and still have a memorable wonderful time.

My first bit of advice is to consider ordering a 1st birthday party kit. These kits are ingenious and can save you loads of time in trying to put everything together yourself. Just figure your number of guests and place your order. I admit to using these kits for all my daughter's birthdays. That way I can focus on the cake, games, and keeping the house clean.

The only thing you might want to forgo for the first birthday is the favor box. Lovely for ages three and above they can be choking hazards for smaller guests.

Now for some more 1st birthday tips...

1. Don’t invite too many children. Limit the children to 1 or 2 of your child’s closest friends and their parents and your family members. The party is for your child and children at this age are just beginning to discover other children and are more than likely like to play near them rather than with them.

2. Have the party at a decent time. Remember you’re dealing with a toddler so nap time is important to avoid the grouchiness. Since most children take a late morning nap and a maybe a late afternoon nap have the party in early afternoon. Noon is a good time.

3. Again these are children. The attention span is short. 15 minutes per game and no more than 2 games. Along with cake and presents your party should be well under the two hour mark. You can have other things for them to play with but organized games should be kept to a minimum. Little bodies still need lots of rest and so does mommy.

4. Don’t let the little ones play with latex balloons. In fact don’t have them around. Ask cute as they are toddlers like to put things in their mouths and latex balloons are a big, I mean big choking hazard.

5. Keep in mind your toddler’s eating habits. Don’t have items like hot dogs (again choking hazard) or peanuts among other no no’s for these small children. The newest thing for your child should be the cake (that is if you’ve waited until the first birthday to introduce your baby to cake which we did). Have toddler finger food. A fabulous book for cooking for little ones is First Meals. This darling book has advice, recoomendations, and recipes for your child from just starting solids until age 5. There are several dishes that would make wonderful first birthday party fare.

6. Don’t forget to capture some memorable shots for your scrapbook. Remember you don’t have to save each and every picture. Scrapbooks are the highlights and the wonder of digital cameras is you can just print 2 or 3 of the best.

8. Don’t forget to check over the childproofing of your home before the party starts.

9. Some good gifts for this age group include...

Balls: Lightweight ones that the can’t do any damage with. It helps to increase their coordination as the ball gets away from them.

Baby Books: Kid’s love books and reading to them and teaching them to enjoy and read books is important

Discovery Toys: These are the toys where baby gets to learn a little bit more about the world around them. Little farm sets, activity tables. There is a ton out there so research reviews and have fun.

Soft blocks and stacking toys: Help your child’s fine motor skills and cognitive thinking.

10. This is a time for fun and celebration. Don’t overdo yourself and see to it that the kids have fun.