Bedtime blues

Sorry...this is a little bit of a vent.

I've got a problem. Zachary is not the greatest napper - sometimes. I know I shouldn't complain about sometimes when most of the time both boys sleep really well. On those off days though......I get so frustrated and don't know what to do. Yesterday and today have both been one of those days. Today I put the boys down right around two. That's a little later than usual because we had a morning play date and went to lunch afterwards. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and let me carry him upstairs to his bed. Then as I was quietly changing Alex's diaper to put him in bed Zachary pops straight up and gets a big grin on his face. Talking, playing, sitting up in bed, kicking the bedrails all continued for about another hour. (I went up several times during this hour when I heard things get too crazy and settled them down.) Finally I laid on the floor with them to insure no funny business and Alex was asleep within 10 minutes. Zachary has been fairly quiet (it's 4:30 now) since then but when I checked on him a few minutes ago (I heard lots of rustling noises) he was sitting up in bed and had pulled a sticker off on something in or around his bed. I have no idea where. Alex was still asleep. If I don't let him out soon then I'm afraid he'll never sleep tonight.

Yesterday was a similar situation. We had a morning play date, came home, had lunch and then down for a nap. This time though it wasn't too late. Zachary probably didn't fall asleep for a good hour or 1 1/2 hours but then did sleep a regular nap.

I realize that his napping may be worse when our schedule is a little off or he falls asleep for 10-15 minutes in the car. I just don't know what to do about it. I know that he is keeping poor Alex up at the same time. (Once we move the boys will each have their own rooms and this won't be a problem anymore.) When we first came home with the boys this problem was with naps and bedtime. Alex had to take a nap on the living room couch or Zachary would keep crawling in his bed with him. At bedtime Zachary had to go up first and then we'd wait 30-45 minutes before taking Alex up. Both of those things have stopped and like I said there is usually no problem. I know I shouldn't get so worked up over it and that I probably add to the problem by going up there so many times and fussing him but I can't help it. God, please give me patience.

**This post has been amended to add that when I went to get the boys out of bed at almost 5pm Zachary was standing up on his bed looking out the window.