One for the books
Chapter One: baby girl’s first birthday party!!!
We knew we would throw a party to celebrate our baby girl’s first birthday and our first year of parenthood. But we didn’t know what it would look like – we needed to get to know her better.
When she was around six months old, that started to happen – she identified her favorite book. We would read Where’s Spot? several times a day. It never got old. It garnered belly laughs. It was always surprising. As soon as the book ended, we had to start it again. We took it on planes, to grandparents’ houses, on walks.
As someone who reads anywhere from 50 to 100 books a year, I was delighted: my baby had a comfort book, already, at the ripe age of half a year! I couldn’t believe it. And yet, it made all the sense in the world.
I would watch her, turning the pages of Where’s Spot, thinking, did I pass that down to you? Whether I did or I didn’t, I leaned right in, filling her bookcase with more books in the Spot series: Spot Goes to the Swimming Pool, Spot Loves His Mommy, Spot Looks at Opposites, Find Spot at the Hospital.
Before she was born, I filled her bookcase with the classics: Goodnight Moon, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Guess How Much I Love You. I lined it with my old favorites: The Vegetables Go to Bed at the very top of that list. I researched new titles I thought she might like: Little Chef’s First 100 Words, My First Shapes with Frank Lloyd Wright, Dog’s First Baby. Some of these orders happened in a late pregnancy panic about how unprepared I was — we didn’t have enough books! we needed more books! I wanted to make sure her bookcase could compete with mine until she was old enough to peruse my collection. That happened sooner than I thought it would…
One day, it became clear that her favorite thing to do, other than eat and sleep, was to look at books. The theme for her first birthday party would involve books, that was clear now. I went to Pinterest and created a board: One for the Books, the cutest theme there ever was. The details were important to me. I knew it wasn’t a memory she would have, but I would have it, and also, there are only so many ways you can show your baby how much you love them. I wanted the details to be just right so that, years later, I could share them with her. I could show her: see, I understood you before you could even talk.
For months, I focused on these details:
I designed a DIY cocktail bar, with each drink representing two of my baby’s favorite books and one classic, for good measure.
The Spot Spritz
2 ounce limoncello
3 ounce prosecco
1 ounce club soda
Pour over ice and stir
Garnish with lemon and mint
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
1 ounce Midori
1 ounce Triple Sec
1 ounce lemon juice
Pour over ice and shake
Strain and garnish with cherry
My First Coffee
1.5 ounce vodka
1.5 ounce Borghetti
Pour over ice and shake
Strain into glass
This last cocktail was inspired by a book that is the least popular of the three. We have a tradition where every time we take our baby somewhere new, we buy her a book and write a note inside to commemorate the occasion. In February 2025, when she was around seven months old, we went to Savannah. At a bookstore, I showed her various books. One after another, she did not react – until I held My First Book of Coffee. Her eyes lit up. There was something about this book. Quickly, it joined Spot in our daily reads.
The rhymes from these books played on repeat in my mind in the weeks leading up to my baby’s first birthday, as I sat with a paintbrush in hand, designing bookmarks late into the evening. I wove string to create tassels for the bookmarks, which would be a party favor.
Another party favor – these little bags of “bookworms,” modeled directly after a pin. My mom and I made them together.
We taped The Very Hungry Caterpillar confetti to toothpicks and stuck them on the cheeseboard.
Inspired by Meghan Markle, I created a rainbow fruit platter.
From my bookcase, I displayed a sign that read “Chapter One,” and to it, strung baby photos.
I painted this canvas, which sat on top of a stack of children’s books on the DIY bar.
This pin stopped me in my tracks – Spot for dessert! My mom took the photo to a baker who replicated these perfect cookies.
And perhaps, most amusingly, I spent four hours the night before the party baking this birthday cake from scratch, complete with homemade buttercream frosting and dye-free sprinkles from Trader Joe’s – all for baby to take a bite, shake her head no, and refuse to taste it again.
So we handed her a Spot cookie. She happily took a bite.
This is such a sweet birthday theme and you put so much thought into it!