Sleep is my arch enemy!

It is 1 AM and the house is still alive and alight. Even if the lights have officially been turned down some hours ago, the three ring circus won't shut down! We have retreated to the parental bedroom, numerous out of tune songs have been sung and rejected. The little pixie has been coaxed, cajoled and finally left to her own devices. Tired parental eyes watch, limbs outstretched, bodies are used as an obstacle course!
Years ago when my favorite movie was Sound of Music, I loved the song "The sun has gone to bed and so must I". Years later when I decided to have kids, I hoped these lines would ring true. Even after being a night owl myself I was delusional enough to believe that kids sleep through the night! Well 7 yrs and about 2500 days later I must tell you mine don't! When God was sending out the memo's about bed time, my kids weren't anywhere close!
My daughter thinks bedtime is the time to
Have crying jags and pretend sleepiness (you want to keep mommy hoping)
This phase is the first and starts early enough for mommy to get excited! And late enough for her to hope this is the actual bedtime. Usually culminates in a 15 minute nap after which we are re-energized and ready to face the night time fun activities with vigor and high spirits!
The slightest sound can be a source of excitement!
Last night Dada and the audacity to sneeze while she rocked on mommy's lap! The sleepy eyes turned bright and alight and awake now with renewed vigor, it was declared that fun awaits!
Songs that have been used before can not be re-used!
Every once in a while the pixie climbs onto Mommy's lap and asks her to sing in her out of tune voice! However the rule is no song can be re-used, now we'll see how she gets past this one!
Bedtime is for language practice and serious conversation!
My daughter thinks bedtime is to narrate to mommy our thoughts about life in general. Only mommy does not follow the pixie speak, so she is in training every night! And the pixie says seriously over and over again "aai hula, sshiish theethhee thhekkum ....voishetheeee"
And when all else fails, it's time to decide your life's direction
Night time is when the pixie trains to be a singer (Barney's "I love you" is sung over and over again), a belly dancer (bring on the butt shake baby), chicken dancer (this involves walking around in circles with hands shaking and folded into their armpits), voice trainer (we practice voice modulation, even if sometimes it looks like Pixie is training to be a loudspeaker!), tight rope walker (this is practiced on the bodies of parents who pretend to sleep), mountain climber (again parents who are available make good mountains) and last but not the least training parents in survival skills (staying awake and alert in times of extreme sleep)
I am hoping to clear training in about 18 years, I will then update you on how we faired...till then from zombie world it's a zzzzzzzzzzzzzz!