The Friday funnies

1. Joe just sent me a link to The Oatmeal's comic "How to Suck at Facebook." He recommended reading it while wearing a diaper and I agree with him. I now pass that tip onto you and you're welcome.

P.S. It totally had me at hello with "The Gamer - Want to join my Farmville??!!"

2. If you haven't already heard Peyton speak ancient Gaelic, it's a must. Seriously, how you not love our guys?

"Now that's next level. HOT SAUCE, HOT SAUCE!"

3. Madeline's new attempt at smiling for the camera. {insert loooooooooong sigh}

And to answer your questions from the last post, no, we did not get a new camera. I pulled our ancient one out of the closet and am attempting to renew our relationship. I don't have the highest hopes that we will make it long-term.

One meal

The floor has just been swept.

And then the shortest member of our family had a black bean and corn quesadilla.

I'm seriously thinking about changing my job title from "stay-at-home mom" to "professional broom handler."

P.S. Superbowl baby!!!

Two sets of tears

Yesterday, Madeline broke the yellow plate in her tea set.

It happened while she was jumping from a loveseat to a couch but she somehow missed entirely and knocked over her pink tea cart. All 24 pieces went flying in the air and crashed on the hardwood floor.

The sound was similar to a Pyrex baking dish exploding on the stovetop. She was rattled but not hurt.

I asked her to stand behind me while I picked everything up. When I saw the first broken piece with a yellow rim, I began to cry.

I don't really know why it bothered me so much. The set is made out of glass and I told myself there was no way the entire set could survive Madeline's childhood.

But inside in my head, I think I told myself we could do it. We could play nicely and gently. We could hide the set from little visitors. We could keep every piece intact and safe.

My tears upset Madeline. She almost began crying herself and couldn't stop apologizing and hugging me and rubbing my back.

I felt awful for making her feel so bad.

And then I remembered a post from Anderson Cooper that I read earlier that morning.

He visited an orphanage in Haiti where children had gone two days without clean water and very little food and the staff was out of IV's and IV fluid for the sickest children. I cried while reading the story but didn't let Madeline see my face. I didn't want to upset her.

And then I remembered that every single time Madeline was thirsty, I opened my fridge and gave her clean water.

And then I remembered that every time Madeline was hungry, I gave her food, amounting to three meals, two snacks and one slice of blue cake.

When I remembered these things, I didn't feel guilty or condemned for my life in America and the way my daughter's needs are cared for.

But I was guilty of hiding my tears over the desperate situation in Haiti and then showing tears over a broken plate.

I want her to know her mom cried and prayed over desperate children, women and men who are fighting to live in the midst of a terrible situation.

I want her to know a tragedy is when a child dies from not having clean water, not a broken plate.

I want her to know the things that matter in this life aren't things.

But in order to teach her those things, it starts with me believing them myself and acting on my beliefs with all my heart.

A recent Children's Museum visit

High point: Visiting the museum became a spiritual experience
Madeline has recently been scared of the dark and monsters. We talk a lot about monsters not being real and that Jesus doesn't want us to be afraid because He is always with us.

As we were walking down the ramp towards the dark dinosaur exhibit, Madeline tugged on my hand and yelled, "Wait!" Then she continued (rather loudly), "Um. OK. Jesus help me not scared of dark. OK. Thank you and amen." She turned to me and said, "Go ahead Mommy. Let's go."

Low point: Wishing our membership included chemical showers
While playing tea party on the fourth floor, Madeline handed me a plastic scone. When I grabbed it, something wet oozed out onto my hand from the tiny hole on the bottom. OH MY WORD. EW.

This is why...

1. I call her my baked potato. Because her personality is l.o.a.d.e.d.
2. I say I can watch her all day long and never get bored.
   
3. We are getting her dance classes for her third birthday.

Madeline dancing from Katie @ Heart Gone Walking on Vimeo.

Sadly, we had capture this on Joe's camera phone because she stops dancing when we pull out the regular video camera. And I know it's incredibly long but I have no clue how to edit video. I'm just proud of myself to actually putting it on here.

P.S. I love this conversation.

Help for Haiti...Again

So many different ways to help Haiti have popped up overnight. Nothing replaces donating yourself which is why Joe and I donated to Compassion but if someone else is going to donate more by me taking some action, then I'm all for that too.

• The Pioneer Woman is donating (2) $500 donations to the two most-mentioned charities in her comments (until noon today) and $.10 for every comment.

• Diaper Diaries is donating $5 to World Vision for every person who links to or comments on her post today.
  
  
• Money Saving Mom is donating $10 to Compassion for every person who blogs about how they personally donated and leaves the link on her post.

Helping Haiti

The disaster in Haiti is unbelievable. I can't stop watching CNN videos and scanning the haunting photos that are coming out of that already unbelievably poor country.

But I've also been moved by the incredible amount of generosity of people who are giving, giving and giving. If you're on the Internet for .2 seconds today, you can't escape people sharing ways to donate or stating that they helped and want to do more.

I love that technology means if I have three minutes, a phone and a computer, I can do something.

In three minutes, I:

• donated $10 to Compassion International by texting "Disaster" to 90999.
• was dollar #124 by commenting on Design HER Momma's post who is donating $1 to Compassion for each comment today.
• retweeted Bebo Norman who is donating $5 for every person who retweets his Compassion's disaster relief link.
• bought raffle tickets for the Lisa Leonnard gift certificate at Hope for Haiti. Companies and bloggers are donating prizes with all money raised going to the Red Cross and Compassion International. $1 equals one raffle ticket.

This tragedy is so overwhelming to look at but I can actually do something, no matter how small.

I love you, blogs and coffee. And these prints.

Joe sent me a picture of this print this morning, thinking I would like it.

To that, I say, "Well done, husband. You know me well."

I am now in love this print and when I went to the artist's Web site, Made by Girl, I think I fell in love with her too.

I'm also pretty sure I need this print hanging somewhere in my home in order for my life to continue moving in a forward direction. And I will also need that wallpaper STAT.

And since it's not all about me, Madeline now needs this print in her life.

That Christmas dress is soooo 2009

Remember when I said Madeline wore her Christmas dress for ten days straight?

Well, she got a few more days in that dress after that post but now the Christmas dress reign is over.

Her new Dora the Explorer nightgown is totally in.

How many girly items can a two-year-old wear at one time? Let's see:

1. Dora the Explorer nightgown
2. Matching headband
3. "Make-up" (my lip balm)
   
4. Pink shirt
   
5. Necklace
6. Multicolored bracelet
7. Pink bracelet
8. Pink nails
   
9. Glass slippers

All while sipping tea.

I bet if she had access to a feather boa, it would be draped across her shoulders this second.

Flying with Daddy

My sister-in-law, Janna, forwarded some new pictures from their wedding in May.

It was the wedding when Madeline was the "flower girl." (And if you remember the story, you'll know why I use the term flower girl loosely and feel the need to put it in quotes.)

Anyways, this picture has now become my favorite picture for two reasons:

1. That little girl and her daddy are so stinkin' cute together.
2. My brother-in-law Jason appears to be rocking out while simultaneously at the verge of tears.
   

The aftermath of Christmas

Please tell me your homes also look like this the day after Christmas.

Or... you know... today.

Because this was our house during the Rose Bowl Parade.

In case you can't see too clearly, let me break it down for you:

Some might say this is because our house is the size of three postage stamps.

I say this is what happens when you let your child play with every new toy, book and game at the same time.

Also, can you see what Madeline is wearing?

That's right. It's been 10 days since Christmas Eve, since the first time Madeline wore her special Christmas dress, and she has asked to wear it every day since.

I don't really have a problem getting my money's worth out of that dress which is why she's worn a fancy dress, white tights and black shiny (HEELED) shoes to the library, museum, grocery store and everywhere else for the last nine days.

Exhibit B of Madeline wearing the dress ALL THE TIME:

There's a good chance she will be celebrating her May birthday in this dress.

On Christmas Day, Joe, Madeline and I had our gifts and breakfast time before going to both of our parents' homes for the rest of the day.

To sum up Christmas Day, every single one of Madeline's gifts is pink and shiny and glittery. You might think a toy vacuum or toy iron would be a normal color like black or white or gray.

You would be wrong.

She passed out in her car seat about two seconds after we buckled her in that night. It was 10 p.m. and, as we all know, Madeline loves a good party. Especially ones where sunglasses are permitted indoors and at 10 p.m.

Madeline received her first tea set. She adores it. If you come to our house any time in the next five years, I'm certain that you will be forced to sit at the little blue table, clink glasses, yell "cheers!" and sip tea.

Her tea set is from IKEA and is super cute. She has already assigned a setting to herself, Joe and me and does not switch settings for any reason. She is pink (of course), Joe is yellow and I am green. The blue setting has been placed on the table since the day after Christmas but no one is allowed to touch it.

She says it is for "Blake, my best friend." (Like I don't know who he is.) She has asked me 236 times every day if he can come over and have a tea party.

Blake, we're just over here awaiting your presence.

Ever since the first few flurries a couple of weeks ago, Madeline has been dying to make a snowman. Sadly, when we got a couple of inches this week, it was terrible packing snow. So Joe piled snow and scraped away until the blob had three definite layers.

My contributions were my pink beach hat, one green scarf, celery arms (because I wasn't about to hunt for sticks) and one sad black button.

However pathetic looking, Madeline loves it. She named it Frosty and after I put the beach hat on him, I'm 99.99999 percent certain that she was waiting for him to come to life.

I'm also 99.999999 percent certain our neighbors think we're clinically insane now. The celery for arms might have been the straw.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, cluttered, celery-ed and all.