Bedtime Woes

so for the last 7 months we have been having battles with getting tristen down to bed. He settled down at one stage then has started up again. He has given up his blankies but it was willingly on his behalf we had been talking to him about it over a few weeks ie do you think the baby birdies may like to have your blankies? etc when oneday he came to me & said "I give blankies to baby birdies mumma?" I said yep if you like so he went & put them out & they left him a mickey behind & all was good for a couple of weeks. Now its gone down hill hes not asking for the blankies only on one or two occasions but when I tell him that he gave them to the baby birdies he talks through the whole story & is happy with that.

Anyways its getting to a point that its driving us crazy we have a routine of dinner, bath/shower, quiet time, story & bed we even tell him hes got 2 mins to go (his time out time is 2 mins) & we set the timer but thats no help, we leave him in his room yelling & screaming & crying but it can go on up to 3 hrs, weve tried sitting in the bedroom in the dark with our back to him but nope he thinks its playtime, everytime he comes out of his room we quietly put him back & after the 2nd time we dont even look him in the eye or talk, weve even held the door shut but that makes it all worse, now the last few nights hes started with "I need to go poos" (hes fully toilet trained day n night) & will sit on the toilet for minutes on end (we leave him to it as it became attention seeking if we stayed with him) & if he gets off & comes out to the lounge & we say ok time for bed now or even try to take his hand & take him back to bed he will run back to the loo & sit on it. If we just ignore the loo thing & put him back to bed he will yell & scream for ages "I need go poos I need go poos"

We have no idea where to go from here & he can go on so much sometimes that he will wake his brother up in the nextdoor room. Weve had no major changes in his life so am at a total loss the last 2 nights weve let him stay up until he falls asleep on us as Ive been quite sick & I havent had the energy to battle with him & DH has tried to settle him too but to no avail i didnt want this to become a bad habit so we both made an effort tonight & he finally settled after doing the toilet drama then DH told him just go & lie down in bed & he did.

Sorry for the long spiel but just wanted to say all weve tried etc he also doesnt have a day sleep & hes a very active toddler we also have heaps of outside play (ie park, tramp, sandpit, paddling pool, bikes) to keep him occupied & to try to tire him out lol

we were consistant for the last 6.5 months only recently have we been trying different options so find something that works so we can stick to it . Thanks for the book info will have a look, he doesnt really have any toys in his room for that reason mainly his books which he doesnt touch or try to read or anything oh & he has his clothes that he occasionally throw out the window in temper lol which we dont put them back until later