R is 28 months and we recently switched him to a bed in his brother's room. Bed time started out horrendously but seems to have slowly improved, though he still gets out of bed multiple times at night before settling in for the night. Fridays and weekends are his days to nap at home. He's been napping on a cot at school since Sept. He typically naps 2-3 hours at home and always went down w/o a peep in his crib. Last week, sitter was here because of school vacation and she got him down for naps in the bed every day. We were away over the weekend. He had school this week and napped there. He was yawning and ready for his nap and ran up for nap time and pretty much just wanted to go to bed. Then got out 30 times. He laughed, ran around, made up excuses, and eventually scratched my face and hit me when I tried to hold him to calm him down. I only had 2 hours before I had to pick up his brother so I ended up rocking him for a few mins to get him to go to sleep.

What are your tips for getting your spirited toddler to stay in bed at nap time?