Helping?

Well, another step in Kiki's development today, she sat on the potty on her own volition!  I know, we've alerted the papers and most major networks, I assume they'll be over soon.  But, whilst sitting on the toilet she asked a question that, though seemingly simple, totally stumped us:

"How do you pee?"


Ummmmm...


Well....


I must say, I never really thought about it.  I just kind of, well, peed.  


But do you push?  Relax?  Push in a relaxed manner?  Relax in a pushing manner?


Somehow, I sensed that "You just do" was not the recommended parental response.  


So, being a failure as a father I turned to my most trusted advisor for some advice.  Yeah, Google.  


But, amazingly and shockingly to my sense of all that is right and true in this world, Google was of no help.  Nope, nothing but yahoo questions of how women pee (hint, they don't have to hold their penis), and queries about peeing in space, on a boat, in a plane, on a submarine.  Basically, every form of transportation.  Apparently peeing while in a vehicle is a bigger problem than I ever realized.  


So, having been failed miserably by Google, I turned to the second smartest person I know. Monsieur Wikipedia (he's fancy).  There, I discovered this:


Voluntary control

The mechanism by which voluntary urination is initiated remains unsettled.^[8] One possibility is that the voluntary relaxation of the muscles of the pelvic floor causes a sufficient downward tug on the detrusor muscle to initiate its contraction.^[9] Another possibility is the excitation or disinhibition of neurons in the pontine micturition center, which causes concurrent contraction of the bladder and relaxation of the sphincter.^[3]

So, basically, no one knows how to pee.  Hooray, I'm no longer a failure as a father, we're just a failure as a species!!!

Also, apparently my daughter is a scientific genius.  I mean, what's the difference, really, between Galileo staring into the night sky and asking why, Darwin watching the finches and asking why, and my daughter sitting on the toilet and asking why?  That's right, there's no difference, she's a genius.  Well, I've got to go clear a space for her nobel prize.  I'm thinking somewhere in a bathroom would be most appropriate.