According to wikipedia, “The syllogism is at the core of deductive reasoning, where facts are determined by combining existing statements…”
The Wee One performed her first recognizable act of deductive reasoning tonight with a syllogism that went like this.
Major Premise: Monsters are huge.
Minor Premise: Elmo (melmo) is a monster.
Conclusion: Elmo is huge?
Let’s do that in prose shall we?
This morning Le Grande Mermaid asked, while watching Sesame Street;
What is Elmo anyway?
Well, Elmo is…a monster.
Oh.
Fast forward to bedtime. The Wee One approached the unsuspecting Daddy with one of those nose-whoppers that only a two year old could live with. It was hanging on for dear life and I exclaimed,
Whoa! HUGE boogie!
yeth
Mommy, do you have a tissue?
[Mommy, approaching seconds later with a tissue]
Holy cow, yeah, that is a monster boogie! [wiped]
and then, the syllogistic leap, after a moments pause Emma authoritatively stated the obvious conclusion,
Melmo boogie.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new family phrase.
blief 
Ok, I have remained quiet long enough. LA grande. And I see another type of logic here of the male sort. Why does Mommy have to get the tissue? Get it yourself bub! War, huh, good God y’all…..
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In response to “Moi” about who gets the tissue: The “Mommy” in this case is hyper-sensitive to boogies, and prefers to wipe them herself. While I can’t claim to know what Lief would have done, I can describe a few thoughts of my own: Sleeves are quite handy. So are the tails hanging down from table cloths. When nothing like that is available, a boogie might be simply “flicked” off.
Which method would you prefer to teach a two-year-old: the “hypersensitive Mommy with a tissue” method, or the “flick it away” approach?
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The “flick-away” approach, long used by the civilized nations of the world, has the advantages of causing said boogie to “instantly” disappear from view, thus preventing embarrassing scenes such as the “corner of the tablecloth” method cited by Bopop. It may be reasonably assumed that subsequent operations by the home vacuum cleaner will “find” the elusive boogie and stow it in the forbidding inner sanctum of said appliance. This is another reason to forgo searching through the detritus of a vacuum cleaner bag for “lost treasures” not picked up before beginning the vacuum cleaning process.
One may find what one wishes he or she hadn’t.
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