The Nightly Sleep Battle

Sleep. It's something I LOVE. I don't need crazy amounts of sleep - eight or nine hours is perfect for me. Any more and I am sluggish and I get a "sleep headache" (I don't know if that's real but it's real to me. I used to feel it, before I had kids). Any less and I'm yawning throughout the day.
So I wonder, like probably every parent in the world, why don't my kids want to go to sleep? We have tried every strategy, routine, bedtime there is. With Owen we rocked him to sleep, we let him cry himself to sleep, we Ferberized him, everything. With Liam we tried letting him cry himself to sleep, but the kid will go an hour without stopping or falling asleep. My latest trick is to read to both of them at the same time, in our bed, and then turn out the light. I hold Liam and Owen snuggles up against me. This has been working like gangbusters for Owen. Ten minutes after lights-out, he's snoozing away. Then there's Liam. My baby boy will hold out for 20, 30, 45 minutes. I put out the lights tonight at 7:50 (20 minutes late, but that's the chicken pot pie's fault). It is currently 8:50, and he's still not asleep. I handed him over to Loren about 30 minutes ago so I could eat my dinner (truth? It's so I can surf the 'net). This way I can eat in peace, and I don't have to fret over when is this kid finally going to go to sleep.
The trade-off is that Owen will come back to our bed (I move him to his bed when I go to sleep) in the middle of the night. He's gotten so good that I don't even feel when he's climbing into the bed. I think he climbs in on Loren's side because that man is a log. Mr. Ed could climb over him and he wouldn't wake up. Liam on the other hand, will sleep through the night, in his own bed. I don't know which one I value more.

PS: I don't like talking about sleep because inevitably whatever sleep they're getting now, it'll change for the worse after I talk about it. I guess this means they'll be up at dawn tomorrow.

Epilogue: 8:54 - Loren just put Liam down in his crib. Success means we can watch "the Office".