Bad sleeping habbits

I've always envied mummies whose kids sleep before 10...9 even! K is a habitual late sleeper. I guess part of the problem is due to the fact that by the time we get home and bathe (myself and then him), it's already almost 10pm. He'll take his last milk feed on the bed and then roll around until he falls asleep. It used to be around 10.30pm up till a month+ ago.

Since a month or 2 ago, he started getting up to a whole heap of nonsense before sleeping. He'd insist that i turn on the light by pulling me to the light switch and going LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT, except he articulates as HEIGHT HEIGHT HEIGHT. And then he'd fumble at the door knob and 谢 谢 until I open the door to let him out. He'd then look for his Daddy and get him to bring in a toy, and then 2...and then 3! It was slightly ridiculous at first as he wouldn't stop playing until we all laid down on the bed with him. At that time he was sleeping after 12 midnight!

After awhile, he started 'stabilising' to 3 toys each night. It's always the same 3 toys. First, it will be a book....next, his doctor set...and lastly, his Hot Wheels set. We couldn't stop him from playing his toys...so we started limiting him to 5 minutes each toy and gradually to 1 minute. By then, he was just going through the motion of emptying the toys on the bed and then putting them back into the packaging/box!

But for the past few days, he's miraculously stopped asking me to turn on the light after his milk...and he's stopped asking to go out to get his toys. Although he's still sleeping at 11-12....it's a lot less tiring than having to keep getting up to open the door (because he insists on shutting the door everytime he goes in and out of the room).

I was very pleased with this improvement and rewarded him with a sticker for his sticker book. Last night, I made the mistake of showing him a new Thomas book we bought and he insisted on bringing into the room. But he didn't insist on turning on the light so he just fumbled around with it in the dark and gave it to me shortly. Again, I was pleased that he's become more 懂 事 ...but after 15mins of not falling asleep, he suddenly grabbed the book again and went LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT. Uh-oh!

Instead of turning on the light, I told him "Do you remember Mummy gave you a sticker today? Cos you were so good the last few nights, you went to sleep without all your nonsense....Do you still want to be a good boy? Do you still want a sticker tomorrow?" Surprisingly, he looked at me solemnly, handed over the book and laid down again!!