The ORDEAL of Bedtime

What were we thinking when we decided to buy a 2-bedroom house?! After all, we knew we were going to have kids. I know most families in San Francisco live with 2 bedrooms but I'll shut up if they can give me the magic formula for having 2 little kids share a bedroom, because I haven't figured it out yet. Just about every night, bedtime has been an ordeal for us. Scarlett's bedtime has always been 8pm and it's worked for us because it gave us a little personal time before bedtime. But now, she doesn't go to sleep for one to two and a half hours after bedtime. My husband and/or I pretty much spend the evening trying to get the kids to sleep. It's absolutely ridiculous! Our typical routine: put Scarlett to bed around 8pm. Elliot isn't ready for bed at 8pm most of the time so he goes to bed around 8:30-9:30. In the meantime, Scarlett is calling us back (crying if we ignore her), messing around, asking for a drink of water, peeing through her pull-ups... basically, waiting for her brother to go to bed in her room. After we put Elliot down, he has to fuss for anywhere from 15-45 minutes before he falls asleep. His latest "fussing" consists of standing up in his crib, rubbing his teeth on the bedrails, sitting down, standing up, sitting down, standing up, rolling around in bed, crying a little, then he falls asleep. Scarlett obviously isn't going to fall asleep to that. And Scarlett talking/playing/messing around only prolongs Elliot's fussing time. So before we know it, it's 10pm before they're asleep and our night has disappeared. Let's not even talk about Elliot waking up in the middle of the night. Last night, he woke up at midnight and screamed ballistically for 30-45 minutes. I seriously thought I was losing my hearing. Do I put a screaming baby down so that I could put on some earplugs? Probably not. Does he have an ear infection or is he teething? I don't know. Is it just a phase? Well, them sharing a room isn't just a phase... Sigh.