Planning a party

My wife and I began planning for my baby’s first birthday party. Yes, this beautiful monster is turning one. I actually laughed when she mentioned that we needed to create party invitations, since I thought she was kidding. It seemed a ridiculous task, given that Oliver was just born.  He was definitely not born over 10 months ago, and there is no way he turns one soon. No chance.
As we discussed party themes, I immediately thought of Oliver’s favorite things: his mother, my glasses, dirt on the floor, cheerios, danger, dirt from my shoes, all seasons of HBO’s The Wire, etc. Unfortunately for Oliver, we steered clear of making a dirt themed party, eliminated the themes that refer to drugs in any way, and avoided foods that need to be drenched in milk to taste good. We settled on The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
My wife is a kindergarten teacher, so it should be no surprise that our son has developed a love for children’s books.  We have read him a few Eric Carle classics, and he has fallen in love with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, as well as with the aforementioned tale about a caterpillar that ruined everybody’s fruits and vegetables. Since these were both two of my favorites, I was pleased with Oliver’s reactions to them. He smiles whenever he hears the first words to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and looks disappointed when he realizes that I’m not going to recite the entire book from memory.
He recently learned Hungry Caterpillar, and now insists on touching and licking all the food items on each page before letting his parents continue to the next line. He must think that he is claiming the food for later, like I do at dinner when guests start to take my favorite foods. Nonetheless, he loves reading the book, so we figured it would make an excellent party theme.
The party will be quaint, adorable, and loads of fun. I only hope that Oliver refrains from taking a circular shaped bite out of everything he sees. It would be cute initially, but we would all get really disappointed when he doesn’t turn into a beautiful butterfly. The result is not nearly that pretty.