17 Months - Sleep & Separation Issues

Although Mom says I am super happy and great and smart and beautiful and strong, etc., she also wants me to report that I have been stinking at taking naps and crying when she leaves the room at bedtime. What smart toddler would rather go to bed at night at 8 pm than stay up with Mom and Dad, eat bon bons and watch The Apprentice and Survivor?
This whole stressful bedtime situation has been made a bit more tolerable, however, by my very best inanimate friend, my orange and purple dog - I haven't named him yet, but I will when I can talk. He is so reliable and he LOVES to be kissed by me - I probably kiss him 100 times a day. Grandma, Mom and Dad won him for me at Dave and Buster's and he has grown on me ever since. I love him. He is by far my favorite stuffed animal and he is my favorite of my stuffed dogs, though my dog from Harrod's comes in second.