Feeding Question and 1St Bday Party Question

I personally would open gifts when the giver is present. My sister in law does not open gifts for my nephews birthday's and my family gets offended! I don't get offended but I think it is nice for everyone to see the gifts the kids get.

Got to open the presents at the party. People love to see little kids open the presents they brought for them.
At my sons 1st Bday party, I did a huge pan of oven baked mac and cheese, and a crock pot full of meatballs - frozen or homemade, BBQ, spa sauce , whatever you want. Our favorite is grape jelly and Heinz Chili sauce together equal parts- so yummy!
Veggie tray, Fruit tray

Oh no, opening gifts when everyone is there is WAY fun! Watching the baby figure out that there's something cool inside, how to rip the paper (which he may not actually ever understand) is just adorable. And to see his delight is definitely necessary for the gift-givers. My babies all understood enough to rip the rest of the paper off after we started it, and then they loved playing with the paper and loved looking that the box or toy.

And the point of giving gifts to a one-year-old, at least for the oldest in the family, is to get TOYS for the next year! My oldest got a shape stacker with lights and music that all my kids loved, a shape sorter, etc. We didn't have any of that stuff yet. For my 2nd and 3rd boys, however, we didn't really bother with gifts unless there was a gap to fill. My MIL often would give them clothes.

I had chips and salsa, potato chips and onion dip, and then cake and ice cream. It was an after-dinner thing.

Because he's so young, you don't have to do any games or anything. It's mostly an adult get-together. But one thing we had fun with was that we chose several items to set around the baby to see which he would choose. For example, we had a laptop, a Bible, a baby book, a toy, and a bottle. Which one he chose was supposed to determine his interests and future profession (it's just a game). My son grabbed a baby book and his bottle and sat on the laptop : ) He still can't choose just one thing!

So we ate, then sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream, opened gifts, and then did that thing with choosing his profession, and that was it.

For the bottles I would check with your pediatrician. It sounds a bottle or two low to me.

For the birthday party, the 1st birthday is more for the adults. I usually do Pizza, meat tray (diet needs), veggie tray, fruit tray, stray candies.... my family is a bunch of snackers...

For the presents, again its what your family is used to. For me I have the kids open the gifts while the giver is present. I usually serve the cake right before presents so that the guests will be busy with that while the kids/me are opening the presents.

My daughter's 3rd birthday, she was so excited, that she'd open the gifts in the hall as soon as people walked in! I was so embarrased, but it worked out because they got to see her reaction without everyone sitting around ...

M.

3 bottles are ok but try to offer a sippy with water inbetween those times. Your idea for food sounds good or you can make pasta and have italian beef sandwiches salad, chips and cake. As far as gifts are concerned because we were all too busy socializing we opted to not open any of the gifts at all. After all at a 1st birthday its the parents doing the opening...Save it for later unless someone insists you open theirs....! :)

Hi, A.:
One quick question: What is the significance for having gifts for a one year old instead of opening a college fund?
Just want to know.
D.

I'm not really sure on the bottles, other than to say that you should be transitioning to a straw cup very soon with whole milk and table food, so don't stress too much. It's going to be a "moot point" very soon!

As for the first birthday party... we had a big celebration too for his 1st and had family and friends for a BBQ. We didn't have him open his gifts at the party for several reasons- he didn't get the concept of presents or "opening" so it was going to be me or my husband opening and trying to get him to react... no fun for anyone. Second, the party itself was really stimulating for him and he zonked-out after everyone left. Third, we put something on the invite for friends about "your presence is enough... no need to bring presents too!". Most people brought something, but some did not and we didn't want people to feel uncomfortable. We openned his gifts later that night when it was "just family" there.

Don't worry about activities unless there will be a lot of older children needing entertainment. He'll play with his stuff and the other kids usuall find something to do!

3 bottles is fine.

We had about 30 people including lots of little cousins at our parties, so we had a meat tray/buns for adults and hotdogs/buns for kids. We also had cheese tray, crackers, veggie tray, fruit tray, chips, and deviled eggs. We did a cupcake tower instead of cake.

We opened gifts in front of everyone and whoever wanted to watch did and whoever didn't was in the other room socializing.

We ate, socialized, opened presents, sang Happy Birthday, watched the baby eat his smash cake, ate cupcakes, socialized, then everyone left. We have a playroom, so the kids just played with toys as the "activity."

I'd check with the pediatrician does seem a bit low for me too but I'm not sure how much table food he is actually getting. At baby parties its still what the parents will eat and they will share with their kids. We made a homemade baked ziti in a big tray but you can get them from catering too. Not to expensive because its just cheese sauce and pasta. Rolls with butter on the side. I'd also but some buffet items out that arent dairy in case their is a dairy allergy. I would stay away from peanuts or any type of nuts and no pineapple. Those are big allergy items and with small hands roaming around could be dangerous. As for opening gifts depends how many presents you will have. 10 and under not a big deal but over that and the parents and kids are stuck there looking at it.