Quick Fix for Scratched Wood Furniture

So our living room coffee table is only a couple years old.  We still love the look and design, but something started to happen to it about a year ago.  It started getting these really ugly spots where the finish was coming off on the top.  Some of us believe this is from not using coasters.  Others believe it's from just normal wear and tear (and having two kids!) The table still looked great from a distance but once you got up close you could see all of these terrible spots:

Just recently while I was at Lowe's, I came across the Homex wood stain markers.  I found it next to the wood putty!  I knew these existed but I just wasn't sure it would solve our problem.  I was also hesitant that I would be able to find a color to match our table.

So Simple Bathtub Table

I've been wanting a "bathtub table" for so long now. (What are those things called?!) Anyway, I finally just decided to build one.

I was able to do this project for about 12 bucks. Yes!! Those are my favorite kinds of projects! 

Child Safety: Furniture

Let me start by saying this.  It's tough being a parent.  And we've only been doing this gig for just over 3 years.  I keep hearing the hardest years are to come (and I believe it).  I've also heard that parents love to stress out about little things.  I really try to only stress out on the super important stuff (to me) but sometimes little fears creep in.  My favorite that I heard from another parent was after having the baby, they were irrationally worried about not keeping enough bananas in the house.

Now, my fears are usually a little more safety related so that comment really made me laugh.  The thing is, is I'm almost alway the parent that tries to sit back and let me kiddos bump into things, fall down while running, and swing really, really high.  When they do get little boo-boo's, we try not to make a big deal of them.  We like to give them kisses and encourage them to try again.  I can't tell you how many times I get the strange looks from other parents when I see a (tiny) accident about to happen, but allow my little ones to learn from their falls.

This type of parenting though, I've learned, really does encourage a type of fearlessness in my kids.  So, it shouldn't have come as any surprise when my three year old decided to climb the changing table to get closer to her "stinky little man".  She climbed that dresser so quickly and effortlessly that I didn't even have time to say anything to her before she was sitting next to him!  And I was standing right there!  We certainly do not allow her to climb furniture and I thought she knew better.  The thing is, now that I've witnessed this act, it can not be ignored.  She has an identical dresser in her room so the odds that she's climbed her dresser are very high.

Where am I going with all of this?  Oh yeah, my fear is that a piece of furniture will fall on one of my kids.  That's way bigger than any bump or scrape.  That's a whole different ball game.  And it scares me to death.

Here's the dresser that both kids have in their rooms. (You can see the other dresser here.)  Notice the perfect little "climbing footings" also known as handles :)  This piece of furniture is super heavy but there is always that possibility of it tipping.