Bubble baths and other bedtime quirks

A couple of weeks ago, I bought bubble bath for Brennan. He liked seeing how soap makes bubbles, so I thought he would like the bubble bath. However, up until two days ago, he didn't like the bubble bath at all. He would ask for "bubble bath," but once I actually made the bath, he was scared (or so it seemed) of the bubbles. I would have to push them all to one side of the tub so they wouldn't touch him. I tried making a bubble beard on myself and piled them up on my nose to show him there was nothing to be scared of, but he still didn't like them. Finally, two nights ago, he seemed to realize they were fun to play with and started swimming right through them.

Brennan definitely does his best to push bedtime. He likes to ask for the potty to delay bath time. Then, after bath, he tries to derail us from getting him dressed by asking for "cud," which means cuddle. Once we finally have him in his pajamas, he starts asking for books - one after the other. Right now, he is on Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What do you see (he calls it Panda Bear); Polar Bear, Polar Bear What do you hear (he calls it Polar Bear); The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog (he calls it Hot Dog); and Llama Llama Mad at Mama (he calls it Mad Mom). We seem to be giving The Cat in the Hat a break. Depending on how late it is getting, we will read between 1-4 books then say, "that's it, it's time for bed." He is pretty good at knowing that this means it really is time for bed and will usually slide off of our bed and walk straight into his room.

Once in bed, there are a bunch of demands we have to fulfill: First, he wants to be layered in his blankets, which he refers to as "B" for his favorite blanket, "Choo Choo B" for the Thomas blanket, "Froggy" for the frog blanket, and "more B" for any other blankets that are within eye shot. After proper layering of the blankets, he has to be surrounded by some animals - he asks for "sea turtle" and then wants the stuffed animals from the stacking toy by him - he asks for "roar," "froggy," "monk," and elephant. He also gets upset if the stacker for the toy is not in the bed. Before we can call it a night, he asks for "cold agua, ice," which is our cue to refresh his water bottle and make sure there is ice in it. Once he has all of this, we shut the lights, turn the music on and he is off to dreamland. Once he is asleep, I go in and remove some of this mess from his crib!