Well, bedtime sucked.

Just in case you were wondering... bedtime Sucked (with a capital S).
Tonight was all kinds of out of sorts though, and it wasn't just because we hid the bops.
Dinner got started late because we were out and about in the afternoon.
After dinner, rather than going straight to the tub, we had to do a rescue breathing treatment (for the 5th time in 3 days). She was a bit confused by that because usually breathing treatment = milk and cartoons, but we were not giving her milk because we still had to do bath. Battle ensued.
Finished her rescue breathing, then went to the tub.
Daddy did bath and diaper, and I thought he had done her lotion (which is crucial with her eczema) so I got her PJs on. Except he hadn't lotioned, so I had to un-PJ her, which further confused her. Battle ensued.
Then, it was time for her nightly preventative breathing treatment, which is accompanied by milk and cartoons. Except we had already done a breathing treatment, so she thought we were downright crazy making her do another. "No more. All done. Bye bye breafing". Battle ensued.
Finally got the breathing treatment done, milk is all gone, cartoon is over. I let her down to play for a few minutes before its time to go to bed, and I silently pray that she doesn't ask for her bop through crocodile tears like she did at naptime.
No mention of the bop. YES!
It is 8:40. Way past bedtime. We kiss Daddy goodnight and climb into bed, where she sees her baby.
Baby needs milk, of course, if its time for bed. So I let her play a few minutes in bed with baby and bottle before trying to convince her that her baby drank all of its milk (hooray, baby!) and now its time to go to bed.
A little crying.
I distract her with books. We read her Easter Search&Find book twice, and "I Love You Through and Through" twice, which is one more book/reading than normal. Lucky girl.
I gently tell her its time to go to sleep now.
And then her onslaught of requests begins. She pathetically (with her puppy dog eyes and sad, little voice) asks for each of her prized possessions one by one.
More Baby bottle?
More read books?
Purse?
Mickey Ma-Mouse?
Boo Boo Buddy?
Blankey?
Hummy?
More read books?
Baby bottle?

I started out gently reminding her that it was not time to play, it was time to go to sleep. I would encourage her to lay down, and offer to cuddle her. About 30 minutes into this charade though, my patience was waning.
My replies were getting shorter. Less gentle.
By the 45 minute mark, I was punctuating every word of my replies..
Lay. Down. Camryn.
No. Books. Cam.
Stop. Kicking. Camy.

At the one hour mark I left the room.
It took her 3.6 minutes to climb out of bed, at which point I returned to the room and instructed her to get back in bed and lay down.
Cue hysterics.
She wanted Mommy, so I laid back down with her.
At this point, Daddy must have heard the hysterics, and without my asking for help, entered the room.
Not good.
She was totally hyped up by his arrival.
Dammit.
She refused to lay down. She yelled about everything either one of us did to attempt to move bedtime along. After 20 minutes of him in there and no progress, I (maybe not so kindly) asked him to leave the room. Which was apparently the magic ticket. He kissed her good night and left, she cried for her Daddy (which made me just a little bit sad). But, within a few minutes, she began to fade. Yawning. Slowing her speech. Pausing her cries. She asked to lay down. *Yes!* She rolled to face away from me, as she always does moments before slumber. She grabbed my hand and fell asleep.
Within the first 10 minutes of sweet silence, she partially awoke twice with little whimpers and unintelligible words.. but she was out. Finally asleep. At 10:15. Sheesh.

Bedtime absolutely sucked, tonight.
But, BUT, what totally boggles my mind is that she not one time asked for her bop.
I can almost guarantee that she would have been asleep LONG before 10:15 with her bop, but she never asked for it.
How strange! And unexpected!
Maybe this will actually work.
I hesitate to declare Operation Drop The Bop a success so soon.. but I was pleasantly surprised (after my patience returned) that she asked for every other item in her room, but never mentioned the B word.

Guess we'll wait and see how tomorrow goes.
And perhaps we'll start bedtime at 4:30 in the afternoon so as not to be up until 10:15 again.