I was sitting at the table eating dinner with the wife and the boy. He sneezed. Whenever he sneezes, whether it's necessary or not, he asks for a tissue. Rather, he demands a tissue. It usually goes something like, "Tissue. I need it. I need tissue."

Though he could work on his manners, we're all for him wanting to keep his nose clean (literally and figuratively), so the wife got up and got him a tissue. He wiped his already dry nose. After doing so, he looked at the tissue. After a moment of staring at it, he said, "Where booger?"

First off, high-five to whoever taught my boy the word "booger." He not only used it correctly, but he used it enthusiastically.

Second, this led to considerable examination of this practice of looking at tissues after blowing noses. I'll admit, I have done this for as long as I can remember. And while I didn't assume it was just me who did it, I did think I was part of a select crowd. I thought it was something that one learns when young, does for a while, then grows out of, much like giggling at farts or doing the "crane" move from the Karate Kid when threatened.

Now, I'm not so sure. It seems as though everybody does it, including my 1-year old. Is it not a learned behavior, but an instinctual need to see what comes out of our bodies? Does it help us bring closure to our stuffy-nose state if we have the visual confirmation that something actually came out? Do we just like to look at gross stuff?