It is a truth universally acknowledged that, as soon as a mother boasts to her friends about something her baby can do, said baby will immediately refuse to cooperate. I can’t tell you all how many times I’ve had to explain to others that “Luki always does X or Y at home, really, he does, I’m not making it up,” only to be met with unimpressed gazes.

Now, it should be no surprise that, not two hours after I published about how blissful the past few weeks have been, my child woke up SCAH-REAMING as if he was auditioning for the next installment in the Saw films franchise. It had been months since Luki woke up in the middle of the night like that, and, at first, I suggested we let him cry for a few minutes hoping that he’d soothe himself and go back to sleep. That plan, unfortunately, was a total bust.

So, Ton Ton, who is already shaping out to be the “nice” parent — you know, the parent you always turn to first to ask for money or to borrow the car for the weekend — went over to the nursery, picked Luki up, and brought him back to our room. “I don’t think he wants to sleep alone tonight,” my husband declared. And yes, even though my mother has warned me hundreds of times about putting Luki in bed with us, about how if we make it a habit we’ll end up with an 18 year old who won’t be able to pursue a college degree because he’ll be afraid to sleep alone in his dorm room, it was 1:00 a.m. and I was exhausted, so we laid our baby down between us.

He immediately stopped crying, but instead of going to sleep, he sat down and began to delight us with a long and energetic speech, complete with flailing arms for added emphasis. GAH MA GAH AAAAAHH MA GAH DA GAH GAH MAAAAAAAAAAA BAAAA DA GAH. On and on for about an hour.

There we were, Ton Ton and I, exhausted and annoyed, unable to fall asleep because our diminutive dictator had decided to address his subjects in the middle of the night. And, as we wondered what had gotten into him, how he had come to drink a Red Bull laced with Cuban coffee at some point after midnight, we suddenly stopped feeling so cranky and, instead, began to laugh hysterically.

Bliss. Tired, sleep-deprived, sometimes irrational bliss, but bliss nonetheless.