Poor AJ. He was submitted to more antique store torture today, although his guilt-ridden parents managed to show him a pretty good time anyway.

AJ woke up at 5:30 this morning, and thus so did we, seeing as he was screaming �MOMMY! I�M NOT TIRED ANYMORE� at sufficient volume to notify half the state that he was ready to play. We took advantage of the early hour and after fortifying ourselves with coffee, we headed out to the Kane County Flea Market to continue our quest for furniture that does not fall down when you breathe on it.

The Flea Market is one of the largest in the Chicago area, especially since the demise of Maxwell Street, and the exhibitors come from all over the Midwest. And it�s really not at all like Maxwell Street, where you could find anything from tires to tube tops. Kane County is more of an antique fair, which means there�s some nice old stuff and a lot of junk. There�s also some new stuff that looks old. We bought a small table for our entry hall from a cabinetmaker who works with reclaimed wood. We also found a couple of tables we liked at the same booth. I still hadn�t recovered with my infatuation with yesterday�s table, however, so I was not as convinced as my husband. In addition to the aforementioned hall table, we purchased one funnel cake for AJ, which he sniffed and poked at with his fat little finger and refused to eat, and one ceramic Snoopy bank, also for AJ. He has been clambering for a piggy bank lately after reading about one a couple of weeks ago in one of the books from our library haul. He carried the bank everywhere with him the rest of the day, giving it occasional hugs and kisses and talking to it. He spent large amounts of time dropping coins through the slot and shaking them out the bottom, from which we�d removed the rubber stopper.

On our way home, we stopped at a playground and AJ ran around and around saying every few minutes, �This is fun!� or �This is a cool playground!� AJ dozed off for about 15 minutes in the car on the way home. This proved fatal, for he refused to take a nap. So after a couple of hours, I threw him back in the car and we headed back to yesterday�s store for another look at the table. I wasn�t quite as in love with it as I was yesterday, although I still liked it a lot. We brought a leaf from the table home to try out the color and it looks better than I thought it would. But the style is a real shift from our current stuff, so I think we�re going to keep looking. Too bad. I like the idea of something with a history. Although, as it turns out, the history of this particular table may be somewhat checkered.

On this return, visit, though, I got a chance to chat with the store�s owners, a married couple in their late fifties, I�d guess. The wife handles the front desk and the husband refinished furniture. He seemed to have a rather artistic soul, and they were very interesting to talk to. I asked the husband if he knew anything about the vintage or origin of the table and he said he didn�t, but that it appeared to be for sale due to a �disenchantment.� He went on to say that the seller had received the table, along with some other furniture, from an elderly aunt who had presumably purchased it new. At some point the seller and the aunt had a serious disagreement, so the seller disposed of all traces of her from her home.

On the way back, as a reward for spending his whole weekend in stores for mom and dad, AJ and I stopped at the toy store and bought a backyard slide. It was more than I wanted to spend and I�m not excited about playground equipment in my yard, but one look at AJ�s face after his first trip down and it was impossible to regret the purchase. It was definitely the best bargain of the weekend.

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