please help

how did/do you get your toddler to go to bed? seriously, need some help and suggestions here. we've tried everything. it's a 20-90 minute ordeal depending on the night, and I can't hang. I'm going insane with this.

please help. please leave suggestions here or email me or link me to where you've written about it before.

and if you have bonus ideas on getting a toddler to sleep past 5:30, we'd appreciate those too.

thanks in advance.

Weekend update

last week we received a most wonderful package of goodies from grandma Olsen that included this:
I was putting all the packaging away when I saw something in some of the plastic. I looked closer and found the above, immobile, even when the plastic rattled. I thought it was dead. the biologist in me was all, look at this cool thing, wonder what it is. so I poked it. and it moved. and I freaked.

that plastic went right back in the box where it was sealed until dad could get home, take pictures and kill it.

now the biologist in me is all, what a wuss, it's just some bug, you've seen dead bodies and stuff and didn't freak. but I don't know what it is or what kind of damage it could have done to me or my lovely family (who I would like to remain lovely).

any ideas as to who our visitor from New Mexico was?

in other news, we went berry picking today and got tons of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. there is something quite satisfying about picking your own food. just to see where it came from and see who grew it is cool. and hd loves running around on farms. so many rows to run up and down, chickens to see, and berries to pick and eat.

actually, she called them boobies. we picked boobies today. hee hee.