a dilemma and some eye candy as a reward

So my child is a little bit making me crazy. His sleeping schedule has been kind of off ever since he was sick. For the two-and-a-half weeks that he was actually sick, he slept fine. But once he went on the antibiotics things started to go downhill. I guess the medicine leaves a really yucky metallic taste in your mouth. I didn't know this at first, but once I found out I realized that that must be why Baby G seemed so ravenous-- he constantly wanted food in his mouth to try and get rid of the lingering taste of metal. At night when we put him in bed he would cry and beg for pink cookies and popsicles. When that didn't work his wish was for a new glass of water. And then another one. And another one. We catered to these needs because we knew the reason for them. However, since he has been off the medicine (over 2 weeks), the bedtime routine has been the same. It is one thing after another to delay him being left in his room alone. It is making me crazy because he had seriously been the easiest kid to put to sleep before-- he would ask for his bed, even tell us to leave the room and go shower (don't know why he said that), and then quickly and quietly fall asleep. Where did that easy sleeper go, and will he ever come back? Tonight we started bedtime at 8:15, but after the yells of "another water in the PINK cup, Mommy!" and "My feet are hurting, Daddy!" and "I want to hug you, Mommy! Give you doggy kisses, Mommy!" it was at least 9:30 before he was actually asleep. We have been going into his room to remind him it is bedtime every so often (and make sure when he claims his feet are hurting that they aren't stuck between the bars or something), but now I am thinking that is counterproductive. Just please don't tell me I am back to the beginning of letting him cry it out. We are thinking that if we can just get him back on a schedule of getting enough sleep at naps and at night (the last two weeks have been kind of all over the place--summer is tricky), maybe he will fall back into the routine. Any of you have any experience here? The frustrating thing is that we are going out of town for a week on Saturday so it seems like all our scheduling efforts will be in vain anyway. But I really am not loving this yelling from his bedroom for an hour. Any suggestions would be very welcome. :)

I'll leave you with a few photos of this naughty little sleeper. We go running on the Jordan River Parkway by our house every morning and it is lovely. I was admiring the light there one day and decided to come back that night with my camera and see if I could get any good shots. Here are some of the better ones (and NO, I certainly am not aiming to be an actual talented photographer here-- just a mom who likes to take pictures of her child).