Getting My Toddler to Bed

i had the simular problem. but it was going from the crib to the bed and staying in it. it was hard because i put my kids to bed at 7pm every night no matter what. i would stop with the naps and suffer it out a couple of days. he is on a routine that you need to break the cycle. if he does not get a nap he will be tired and go to bed as early as you want it.
this does work because i have a 4,7,21 & 24 year old, and i will not let them control me. believe me i do know it works, you just have to be strong.

I would recommend stopping the nap. I think it's forcing him to not be tired at bedtime. Another option instead of a nap is quiet time.

When I was younger my mom set up like an hour of quiet time. I believe we had to stay on our bed. We could either play quietly or read (look at books). If we wanted to sleep we were welcome to.

She claimed that she would rather do that and put us to bed early if we were crabby rather than have us up late.

We have the same struggle with our 3.5 year old - still NEEDS a nap but then has a tough time going to bed at night. I still have her take her nap but wake her after an hour - she is crabby but she goes to bed easier and isn't crabby during the evening. We are thinking of changing nap time to quiet time in the near future. Good luck!

Maybe if he didn't nap he'd be so tired that he WOULD go to bed earlier...just a thought...good luck!