The cereal didn't last long and she was soon jumping up and down for her uncle to join her in a game.
"What kind of game do you want to play?", he asked as she scooped her in his arms and carried her to the couch again. She shrugged her small shoulders and demanded that he make a new one up. So, that's exactly what he did. "Ok, Maddie, this is what we are going to do. We are going to go on a treasure hunt today!" Her face beamed with excitement as her eyes grew wide. "Today, we need to find different things, ok?"
"What kind of things?", she questioned. Joe wasn't exactly sure where he was taking all of this, so it took him a second before he blurted out the first things that came to mind.
'like . . . a stick, and a marker, and A BOOK!", he exclaimed. She still seemed excited and obviously was too young to realize that Joe wasn't good when it came to the common sense department.
"Are they in the house?", she asked with her big hazel eyes, just like her dad.
"Most of them, but you can find them everywhere we go today." With that said, Joe reminded himself that Alex left him a note to go to the store for her today. So, after about a half-an-hour of searching for items in the house and another fifteen minutes of putting everything back where it was, the two made their way out to the car and on their way to Target.
In the car, Joe tuned the radio to a familiar sound from his past. To his surprise, the three-year old in the back seat began to sing the lyrics.
" I been to the year 3000. Not much changed but we live underwater. and your great-great-great-great . . . ", she trailed off, singing one too many "greats" as she pointed to something outside her window. "Look, Uncle Joe! Birdie!"
"yea, Maddie. That's good." She resume singing the song, mispronouncing a word here or there. Joe was still amazed that she knew it. "Did your daddy teach you that song?", he asked.
"No. Uncle Nick plays it for me.", she said in between words. The song soon ended and Joe laughed that the DJ called them a "classic boy-band". Shortly after the song stopped, so did the car. Joe pulled into a space and took Madison from her car seat and sat her in the buggy.
"What do you need to buy?", she asked in her sweet voice.
"Aunt Alex said that we need to get some things for the house.", he grabbed the list from his pocket and began to read the list. "Like, light bulbs, laundry detergent, tin foil, hairspray, and batteries." Madison nodded her head, like she was an adult and Joe pushed her to the first aisle. He grabbed a pack of batteries, wondering what size she meant before getting a pack of each. Then, he made his way over to the hair products aisle. Madison was tempted to touch everything! But, he stopped her by telling her that if she did, a big green monster would come out and steal her hair. She believed him and kept her hands in the shopping cart the resot of the time, until she spotted aisle 17!
"Uncle Joe! Toys!", she screamed at the sight of Lego, Play-doh, and Barbie dolls. Joe gave in to her big, droopy eyes and sagging bottom lip and wheeled her towards the paradise. She quickly forgot about the non existing, hair-eating monster and began to grab at all of the different things to play with. Joe had his eyes one something else. The bikes. He always wanted to buy her one, but Kevin would never let him. He always scolded him by saying "She's too young, she'll fall, or she'll end up in a tree, like you did" What better time than the present? When Kevin wouldn't know?
