It's the Great Pumpkin, Claire Bear!

Mommy's Lil Pumpkin

 Today was Claire's first Halloween!  I kept forgetting all day and asking her if she remembered last year... just to have to remind myself of course not, she wasn't born yet!  I'm unfortunately in all sorts of first birthday mode, so I can't remember little details like, uh, it hasn't happened yet!

M-I-Z-Z-O-U!

 Claire was a very important girl for Halloween.  In fact, she had day care to dress for (the "Mommy's Lil' Pumpkin" shirt), a Halloween party this weekend, and of course, the big day itself.  She couldn't be caught wearing the same costume twice, so she dressed up differently every time.  Unfortunately for us, Claire is on the move these days!  She's crawling everywhere (silly me, I thought the grass would stop her), and now she's standing all the time and starting to take steps all on her own!  It sure made taking pictures a real challenge!

...and I'm done posing

 So Claire decided she wanted to wear her MU cheerleader uniform to the party this weekend.  She has cute Mizzou tights from Grandpa Larry and she's had this uniform since... before she was born!  The tiger ears, too!  The taggy blanket is the one I made last spring and her tiger was given to me at my Master's ceremony.  Costume complete! 

Is THIS the Great Pumpkin?

 Claire wears this get up to go to the MU games, which means it's technically an outfit she's already been seen in (gasp!) but we didn't have any good pictures of her all decked out, so we thought this would be a good photo op as well.  Besides, we didn't want to do a reveal on her actual costume early!

She's so curious about everything; it's almost impossible to get her to smile at the camera!

This reminds me of a senior picture pose for some reason

 For real Halloween we didn't actually do any trick-or-treating since Claire can't eat the candy, and I thought it seemed greedy to take her out just to eat all her candy when we got home (oh, we still got candy, don't worry about us!)

Who is outside now??  Are they coming to take my candy away?

 Our first stop was Grandma and Grandpa Duckett's house.  She crawled around their newly remodeled house, enjoying the splendor of their new padded carpet!  I really thought she wouldn't be able to crawl in this costume so I was hoping for good pictures--turns out yes indeed she can crawl as a pumpkin.  Capturing her in it sitting still was impossible!

Peeking out the door for trick-or-treaters!

...and she WORE THE HAT!  For all the trouble I've gone through to make her lovely hats, this cheap thing stayed on her head for a long time.  Rats!  Double rats!  At least it was cute for pictures!

So determined!

The hat disappears--it got too hot for a hat, anyway.

 And Claire even went so far as to show off her newest trick, standing and taking a few steps all on her own.  She's been standing and cruising on furniture for what seems like forever.  But now she's finally been brave enough to try a few steps.  We can't wait for her to really start to walk!

Little steps!

 We also went to visit our Auntie Anne where we got to see trick-or-treaters (which she smiled at).  We couldn't stay too long because it was getting close to bed time, and Claire does NOT let you forget she's getting sleepy!  She really didn't seem to mind the costume, which was impressive since we thought it would be a terror.  She smiled and patted it a lot; I think she liked how shiny it was.  Overall Claire had a pretty fun first Halloween.  I can't wait until she's a little older and can actually trick-or-treat, or at least appreciate all the fun of Halloween! 

Happy Halloween!