"I Saved You Some Room"

The night time routine is still full of negotiations, whining and challenges.  It's also full of love and good times with the Boy.  He has lots of great ideas during this time:

Boy:  "Mom, I have a great idea.  What if we play in the playroom for 10 minutes and then we can take a bath?"
Mommy:  "Collin, are you going to change your mind about that when it's been 10 minutes?"
Boy:  "No"

10 minutes goes by.....

Mommy:  "Collin, it's been 10 minutes"
Collin:  "That was not right.  How about 2 more minutes?"
Mommy:  "We talked about this.  After 10 minutes, then it's time for a bath."
Collin:  "We need 2 more minutes first"
Mommy:  "We just spent the 2 minutes talking about it"  hehehehe....I knew that would go over REALLY well.

FINALLY in the bath, Collin announces "I want to play a little while before you bathe me".  I told him that he played in the playroom so we needed to take a bath and get ready to read books.  More than 15 minutes later, he is out of the tub drying off.  Then, there is brushing teeth.  He is better at wanting to brush his teeth but he is speedy about it now.  He used to take his time and get all of the teeth, front and back.  Now, it's a couple of swipes and "I don't need to brush my tongue today because I did not use it".  Oh really....

Now, we are in his bedroom and ready to read books.  "How about 3 books, 2 little ones and then the dinosaur book".  I know how this goes.  We read the 3 books and then I get to hear "Just one little one more".  Does he like the books?  Well...I am sure he does for the most part but he is also smart enough to know that this delays him going to bed.  I do like to read to him but, by now, it's been over an hour and a half of getting him to this point.  Plus, it's that time of year at work that I have to work for at least an hour or two after I get him to bed.  This means, I am not usually in bed before 11am.  Anyway....I do finally finish reading however many books we plan to read for the night.  I tuck him in bed, make sure his animals are around him that he wants for this week (he does change one or two of them out but Monkey is the primary animal still) and then I kiss him good night.  He asks "Are you going to sleep with me tonight?"  I have used every reason that I am not laying down with him right then because he needs to learn to sleep by himself and I cannot always lay next to him every night.  He used to cry about it and now he responds "I moved over to give you some room so you can lay next to me when you are finished with your computer".  Ugh!  How do I not come back and lay next to him after that?  Sometimes I do and then sometimes I don't.  I do love this time with him and know there will come a time that I am gross or that he does not want to be around me.