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[quote=Anonymous]OP here. Thanks for the suggestions. I do take him outside every morning to attempt to get out his energy, rain or shine. We also go to an indoor playground on days it's too yucky outside to play at the outdoor ones (but I still also take him for short walks outside even if the weather is bad, in addition to the playground). Unfortunately it's difficult to get him to actually run around at the playground outside, he isn't interested in playing with balls at all (he'll kick or throw one time and immediately lose all interest). I try to get him to engage in active play like pretending to be a flying plane or train chugging up and down a hill, or a kangaroo jumping, etc, but again, he loses interest after thirty seconds or less every time. It is almost always me running around and jumping, and he just stands and watches. The most frustrating part is that he is always running and jumping in his house (on their loud, hundred year old hardwood floors), but the second I take him to the park he stops and no matter what I do will not run or jump, but the second we get back home he's running and jumping all over again. I will say that he climbs up the slide and will do that a few times at least, but it's not the same as really running around :/

Back when he used to nap he always went down around 2 or 2:30pm, so I've kept quiet time about the same. Recently, I've tried doing it earlier (as early as 12:45pm), and slightly later (2:45/3), but the timing seems to make no difference. I also always make sure he has a tummy full of food and a small cup of milk at quiet time.

Quiet time is supposed to be 45 minutes, but usually ends up just being 30 or so. (I did a little research on the subject of quiet time for non napping two year olds and read that one hour was a common timeframe; I was hoping to work up to an hour). He is supposed to stay in his big boy bed, laying down, ideally, quiet (not yelling). I always make sure he's super cozy in comfy warm clothes, and cover him with blankets, and give him his favorite stuffed animals. I've offered giving him books to look at in bed but he's made it clear that he doesn't like that idea.

I like the suggestion for slow, monotone, boring book reading. I also like the idea to read to him in bed (our routine has always been for him to read in my lap but now I see why that's not ideal). I like the idea that quiet time is over "when the cd stops," he doesn't have a CD player but he does have an iPod and dock so I can probably make a short playlist on it for quiet time. His mom doesn't like him watching videos, I think he does it so rarely it would just amp him up more to get to watch one (and of course I don't want to piss off MB).

One big issue is that he doesn't seem to be able to control himself at all. I mean, he's two and a half, I get that they don't have much self control, but he seems to have less than most. Today, after listening to him yell and shout  and jump in his bed for 25 minutes (I gave him two warnings that he was being too loud but he didn't quiet down at all, so I gave up, as usual), I went in and told him that quiet time could end if he could just lay in bed and be quiet (which I defined as no talking louder than a whisper, and, once again, practiced whispering with him) for two minutes. Again, I made it very clear that ALL he had to do was lay down and be quiet for two minutes. He acknowledged that, but then less than ten seconds later began singing very loudly, again. I gave him several chances, but time and again he proved that he literally cannot quiet himself down for even ten seconds.

As his long term nanny, I find it frustrating that looking back over the last year, he seems to have LESS self control now than he did a year ago. Up until a few weeks ago, for the last few months, although he would sometimes be loud at quiet time, he seemed to do a pretty good job of at least trying to be quiet, for the most part. The past 3-4 weeks have brought nothing but nonstop yelling at quiet time. I was hoping it was a brief phase, but clearly he will not stop unless things change. In any case I will definitely try the suggestions (monotone boring book reading in bed, iPod playlist, etc).

Thanks again everyone I appreciate your help.[/quote]

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