There are very few things I remember about visits to my grandparents on my father's side of the family's house, among them: the smell of stale cigars, the sight of an impossibly tall Christmas tree that seemed to stick around all year, and this incredibly loud, incessant banging noise that can only be made when a child's hands discover the drum that was my grandparents brass tray coffee table. Granted the banging noises I remember were probably from my own fists, but somehow I'm not delighted by the sound 20-something years later.

So do you know what noise resounded in my mind (wrapped in the tinge of that yucky stale smoke smell) the entire time I flipped through this month's Elle Decor? Yep, you got it

Our cover girl, Ellen Pompeo has no idea what she's in for raising a child near that nightmarishly loud baby toy.

Perhaps she could take advice from the young couple on page 147 of the EXACT SAME ISSUE

Diego and April Uchitel have small children and they have this table which leads me to believe that they are not home much and they have a nanny. Or (cover your eyes margaret!) (I still love you!) Elle Decor hired the same stylist for both shoots.

Also, it means that this vintage table, having appeared twice in a single issue of Elle Decor, is hot hot hot.

PS Erin has one and I really hope she doesn't read this post today so she can learn first hand how fun it is when Ike takes his first lap around it.