My evening with lil' Jimmy, a timeline

6:05pm I lose my electricity. I try to harness the chi of my brother Billy and say out loud "Embrace it Cindy!". And so I gather up some flashlights, light some candles and continue cleaning.
6:10pm Teresa arrives with lil' Jimmy, both pretty wet from the rain.
6:15pm (still no lights) We all walk into the kitchen where I have set up some finger paints over newspaper on the table.
6:16pm Jimmy begins running around in a circle and screaming. (Internal Dialogue: Huh, what exactly do I do now?)
6:18pm Teresa and I suggest we do some finger-painting.
(I really thought the finger painting would take at least a good 20 minutes while we waited for the pizza to arrive. Silly me.)
6:19pm Jimmy gets a couple drops of colors on the top of his paper. With what appears to be both fists into the paint takes two or three giant swirls around on the paper and pretty much has completed the finger painting exercise.
6:21pm Ponder what to do now. I seem to keep getting phone calls, from my mom asking if I got a hold of the power company, from Jenny to let me know she was running late (no worries, I'm not starving or nothing ;)
6:22pm We put down the shades in the house and begin walking around looking for things with flashlights.
6:24pm (While looking for cool things) Teresa makes the comment that in the chaos of picking Jimmy up, she didn't let her dogs out. We decide that since Jenny is running a little late, she'll run home and let them out and Jimmy and I will "chill" for a bit.
6:25pm Jimmy and I sitting across from each other in the living room, both holding flashlights, both pondering what to do.
6:30pm Thus begins the tale of the Giant, White, Fluffy Marshmallow Man. If you have ever seen those car insurance commercials where they have the celebrity interpreter. This is what I felt like. The conversation would go something like this.

Jimmy: And I think I think the Marshmallow man should go home, and I think he should get his race car markers and draw a race car.
Cindy: What color should the marker be?
Jimmy: I think the color should be um, um, um
Cindy: What about race car blue?
Jimmy: No
Cindy: What about race car green?
Jimmy: No
Cindy: (chuckling a little, knowing I think I'm starting to annoy him by offering up suggestions) What about race car orange?
Jimmy: No! (with a tiny bit of adorable tone) I'm picking the color. I think he should get, um I think race car blue. And he goes home and he draws a race car and I think he should eat some peanuts, 1, 2, 3 peanuts
Cindy: Are they magical peanuts?
Jimmy: YES! They're magical peanuts. He eats 1, 2, 3 magical peanuts and he says, "mmmmm that smells like pepperoni" (internal dialogue: Oh my gosh, you are so Danielle's child!) and he turns into the race car so he can go on the race track he draws with his favorite race car blue marker.
Cindy: Ok
Jimmy: (this is my favorite line!) Now tell the story!
Of course I then tell the story, with a few interjections from Jimmy to correct me along the way :)
7:05pm (Starting to get a bit ravenous) Jimmy and I go to look if we can find a little snack while we wait for the girls. Mind you that the smell of pizza, which was already delivered, is waffing through the kitchen. With our flashlights, we check out the pantry. Jimmy finds some chips. "CHIPS!", he says.
7:06pm I try to explain that I'm not sure his parents would be thrilled with him eating, chips, pizza and then cupcakes/cookies all in one meal. I try to make sunflower seeds sound positively delicious. I might have told them they are magical. (sneaky, I know!)
7:10pm Teresa arrives back from letting her dogs out. I'm exhausted. Don't get me wrong, I didn't do any physical labor, but the story telling was pretty grand and listening and watching him so he doesn't break a limb on my watch pretty much exhausted me. For some reason Jimmy starts running in circles and screaming when Aunt T arrives.
7:15pm Jenny arrives and we all sit down for some pizza. We ask Jimmy to tell us about his new dog Dixie.
7:16pm We enjoy a few choruses of "ruff" along with trying to figure out if he wants a story about Mr. Dupree or Mr. DeQueen. I won. It was Mr. DeQueen!
7:30pm Dinner is finished. We decide that we are going to watch a Thomas the Tank Engine movie while having some cookies.
7:31pm I brew coffee. It's the only way for me to survive this.
By 8:00pm we have Jimmy sitting on a cool blanket watching a movie. You could hear a pin drop he's so silent. Finally I realize, this is what parenting is about. TV! Note to self: If I am ever blessed with children, there will be a tv in every room of my house. No need for magical peanuts, or treasure hunts with flashlights or fingerpainting. I'm going to have them watch hour after hour of "Wuzzby Wuzzby Wow Wow". Sure I might get annoyed at the weird rhymes and songs with bouncing balls, but it's better than the alternative!