So, it’s your pride and joy’s first-ever birthday. *Sob.* There are truly no words to describe how quickly the year is gone, how much your baby has grown, and how messy they got the first time they ate (OK, obliterated) birthday cake. Fortunately, you’ve documented every single milestone — and you’re certainly not going to stop on their first birthday. But since emotions will be running high, you may need a little help when it comes to tossing captions on the roughly one million photos you’re going to post on the grid to commemorate this huge date in the life of your baby.

Once you rinse the icing out of your not-so-little-one’s hair, tuck them into their crib, pick up the last piece of wrapping paper, and wipe your tears, we’ll throw you a bone: Here are some Instagram captions you can use to share the day’s highlight reel.

17 Perfect Instagram Captions for Your Baby’s First Birthday

1. When your kid tries refined sugar for the first time: Let them eat cake! 🎂

2. When you can’t stop crying: Happy first birthday to Baby Liam — and only Baby Liam. It me: 😭🔁😢

3. When it’s been a long but net-positive year: A ONE-der we made it 3️⃣6️⃣5️⃣!💫🌎

4. When it’s been a long and c-r-a-z-y year: Well, that was a wild ONE! 🤠🎉

5. When it’s been a long f*cking year: Here’s to 12 months and 12 thousand diapers! 💩👶

6. When you literally don’t know where the time went: Literally born yesterday ➡️1️⃣🤯

7. When you want to make every mom who follows you cry: You may not remember the flavor of your first cake or the color of your first party dress, but we’ll never forget the day you changed our lives forever. 🥰

8. When you realize your 1-year-old still fits in a box: One year later, and he/she’s still all I ever wanted 🙌🎁

9. When your balloons are bigger than your baby: Up, up, and away to 2! 🎈⬆️ 🪂

10. When you’re feeling sentimental: 🎶🎵How ONE-derful life is while you’re in the world. 🎶🎵

11. When it rains on the big day: 🎶🎵You make me happy when skies are gray. 🎶🎵 Happy birthday, baby! ☀️🌈

12. When your birthday baby’s an actual angel: Baby’s first act of defiance: Growing up too fast 👼🥺

13. When birthday festivities turn you into a cheeseball: My ~number ONE!~🧀👀

14. When your baby didn’t sit still all day: Birthday baby on the ~ONE~ (🏃‍♀️!)

15. When your baby gets a hold of the bubbly: One going on 21 🍾

16. When first birthday party planning leaves you full out of steam: My little ONE. 🕯️

17. When your kid’s birthday party was extra but your captions are minimalist: 🥳#1

BFFR, though — it doesn’t matter what caption you use on the snapshots you take of your baby on their first birthday; you’re going to be wrecked. At least with a cute or clever caption, you can look back on the celebration and laugh about all the adorable things that happened that day… as opposed to focusing on the fact you couldn’t stop ugly-crying when your baby blew out their singular candle and then went feral on their smash cake.