Boo!

"Boo!" Is one of Avery's favorite things to say. She says, "Boo, Junie!" all the time. She says "Boo!" to Jason and I. She says it to her grandparents, to our home teachers, to our bishop. She says it from the confines of shopping carts to everyone within hearing range. She flies around the house on my kitchen broom (which she rides backwards but she won't listen when I tell her that) singing the "Mean Old Witch" song with great emphasis on the final "Boo!" at the end. Basically, she says it all the time to everybody.

My favorite "Boo!" was to the goat. Gruff, our goat, had just been through some major stress in his life. Our new dog tried to eat him and would have succeeded if I hadn't intervened. That really took the bounce out of Gruff's step and he was so uncharacteristically mellow for a few days that I thought he'd never be the same again (and truthfully I was excited because normally he is literally insane.) However, only two days after getting his behind bit off he was back to his crazy prancing, dancing, twirling, whirling, jumping, climbing self. That just happened to be the day that Avery and I went out to the barn to inspect the new dog house Jason was building. Gruff joined us and when I bent over to pick up a screwdriver off the ground he took the opportunity to jump on my back. That's when I knew the old Gruff was back (Shoot!).

I can't remember what I was up to out there, but I had to run back to the house to get something I'd forgotten and Avery wanted to stay out there while I did. I put her on top of the dog house because she doesn't like Gruff after the time he knocked her down and stood on top of her. Gruff followed me back to the house, but when I came back out he wasn't there. Looking around I spotted him out by Avery with his front hooves on the dog house. I knew Avery wasn't gonna like that so I hurried out there and saw her pointing her finger at him and yelling, "Boo, Gruff! No, go away! Boo!" It wasn't working. I think she'd said "Boo!" so many times it had lost its scare affect.