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Yep, we went through that! My normally awesome sleeper would cry as soon as we tried to put her in the crib. She wanted milk, cereal, juice, more hugs... Anything but bed (even though she was so tired her eyelids were droopy). I always obliged her and let her stay up for awhile longer, but kept the surroundings quiet and as non stimulative as possible. We read extra books, drank milk, rocked her a while longer, and then I just kept trying to put her to bed. Some days it took until midnight before she finally fell asleep. Other times she would continue to wake up throughout the night and wanted me to sleep on the floor in her room. I think at this age (around 2), their little minds are growing and developing so much that they just can't seem to turn it off. This is also when my daughter started developing a ton of fears so I figured there must be things that were scaring her that she couldn't verbalize yet. We got her a dimmer lamp and keep it on very low now and that seems to help.

Good luck! We had awful sleep for about a month but it did get better, with lots of patience

It sounds like she's testing her boundaries! I would just stay really consistent with whatever method you want to use to get her back to sleep. If you're ok with rocking her, then rock her. If you want her to go back to sleep on her own, then leave her be if you know she's ok! I think 2 year olds understand so much more than we give them credit for. If it were my son, I'd probably go in once, give him a hug, ask him if he's ok and tell him that he needs to go back to sleep and I'll see him in the morning. And then not go back in!

We were on vacation 2 months ago and we had to sleep in the same room with our son. He is usually a great (but loud) sleeper and he kept waking up randomly and crying for me. I would go check on him and even brought him into bed once but he just laid there staring at me! After 2 nights, if he woke up crying I would just yell across the room, "It's ok, go back to sleep!" And then...quiet.