camera=broken

I am camera researching constantly these days. As I A) have no tv to occupy anytime but per the post below - this is a good thing and B) Broke my camera last week at the baby's first play date. I know that many of you are checking this blog only to see pictures of the little booger grow (rather than to read about my mindless posts) so we need a new camera asap! HELP! Do you have a camera you love? I want one with a really good zoom. What are mega pixels? Do I really care about them. I know I do if I am going to blow pictures up and stretch them out. I have now spent nearly 2 days looking at every camera on the market. I am not a good decision maker though so until someone that I admire tells me that I should buy a certain camera I will continue to scour the internet for advise from strangers and Ashton Kutcher.