The light on the other side.

Being sick is always the pits until you start getting better. That's when you can still be full of boogers and hacking like a smoker but the worst of it is over and you're ready to scream it from a mountaintop that you're feeling so much better! Now come on, guys, let's drink a glass of wine in our sweatpants and think about all the cleaning we feel like doing.

The post-cold stage this time is kind of like the last month of pregnancy. I see my future and it's not surrounded by used tissues. All that energy I saved from sitting on the couch for three days has been storing itself up into my cleaning reserves. Sure last weekend was immensely lazy, but this weekend I'm dreaming of sanitizing, scrubbing, and tidying like a woman whose water's about to break.

Everything needs to be cleaned. Disinfected. Wiped down. Bye bye, scary dust bunnies and invisible cold germs. Hello, scary Anna.

Now that Parker's more or less out of our room, I'm going to put on flannel sheets and duvet cover on our bed tonight so that we can finally sleep with the window open, just like we did before he was born. I don't even think we used our flannel sheets last year, even when we were sleeping with the window open at -40, because I was such a raging ball of hot hormones and tiny human incubator. So bring on the polka dot flannel!

I haven't gotten excited about Christmas yet and our pumpkin is still on the step. Karl's birthday banner is still on the fireplace, come to think of it, and his birthday was over a month ago, but I just like the way it looks. It snowed last night, though, so I feel the festive urge settling in. Once the house is in good shape then I can start thinking about putting up the trees. Yes, trees. We bought a full size tree during clearance season last year so this year we're rocking both child and adult size trees. We are definitely the fanciest people you know with outdated birthday banners in their house.

I've got a pretty tight knitting schedule going this week. I'm working on a blanket for a friend that got married in August and need to have it finished and hopefully washed and dried by Friday night. It's been going pretty well and I'm really enjoying the process of it, but I'll be glad when it's done. Because that means it's the weekend and hello, cleaning time. When you have a baby it's so much easier to get stuff done when you just need to feed them every few hours and someone else does the rest of the parenting.

Parker rolled from back to front for the first time this week. He decided to do it right before bed when no one was watching. Apparently when babies learn new skills they like to practice them. Even when they're sleeping. All. night. long. It was like having a newborn, being woken up every hour by an enraged baby. Ever since then he's been like a moody teenager. Or cat. Hello, mood swings. But only when it's just the two of us. He hams it up really well for everyone else we see, including Karl. Little punk.

That's okay, though, because rolling is the precursor to standing and we all know what standing leads to. Making Mommy breakfast in bed. Only 19 more months until he's old enough to operate the stove unsupervised. I can't wait!