I hate bed time

I hate bed time at our house. Dallin has to get dragged into his screaming, "no go bed, no go bed!" and Porter tries every tactic he can think to stall. Because Dallin wants to sleep in Porter's bed and cannot be distracted when Porter and I try to sneak off for books, I have to put Dallin to bed first. I read to him, which can take three times as long as it should because gets tired of books half way through and closes them and then changes his mind and wants to start all over again. Or he won't push the sound buttons on the sound button books but won't let me do it and won't let the book continue until the buttons have been pushed. Or he just has a lot of questions and comments along the way. Mostly, he just gets mad that he has to go to bed and that carries over into everything else. Lately, he wants me to lay on his floor until he falls asleep but I still need to put Porter to bed. Dallin and I have sort of struck a deal. I put him to bed and give him "spaceship kisses" (which are just regular kisses but he thinks are special somehow) and then leave the light on for him. I am supposed to come back after Porter is in bed and lay on Dallin's floor then. Dallin usually falls asleep before I come back though. So last night, I put Dallin into bed, discussed how I would be leaving the light on for him until I came back, and went to put Porter to bed. Just as I got Porter into bed (after collecting all the toys that need to sleep with him: his new motorcycle and rider, George (his monkey), and Yertle the Turtle; as well as getting his blankies set up appropriately, aim his humidifier at him, get him a juice, etc. etc.), Dallin started crying. I went back to tell him to wait and he wouldn't be consoled. Dallin screamed through all of Porter's book time, Porter's prayers, and Porter's tucking in. I told Porter I needed to go take care of Dallin and then Porter got upset. His "whole body is sick" and he is scared of the "darks" and wanted me to lay "behind" him. We negotiated that I would come back into his room and lay behind him after Dallin was asleep and so he settled into bed finally. I went and laid down on Dallin's floor and spent the next hour waiting for him to fall asleep. Every 5 or 10 minutes, I would hear, "Mom," "what" "no go." Finally, I fell asleep. I woke up, at what I thought was probably 1:00 or so am to go to my own bed. Sadly, it was 6:00 and time to get ready for work. Ugh. This is why I secretly hope that they will fall asleep watching tv before it is time to put them to bed.