Nap or No Nap

So the toddler didn't nap yesterday! If you think that meant he fell asleep early, so that my sister and I could talk the night away undisturbed you are wrong. He played with his teenage girl cousins for quite awhile, but then the tiredness set in, but of course he didn't want to sleep. He was in a new place, and God forbid he could miss something. He didn't fall asleep until midnight; only to wake up again at 2 am with a nightmare. He screamed bloody murder for 5 minutes which of course at 2 am feels like 2 hours. So much for all the advice I get about not letting him nap to get him to sleep better at night. I tell people he does not sleep better at night if he doesn't nap, on the contrary, his night sleep gets worse. I am a firm believer that toddlers sleep the best when they have routines and that the better they sleep in the day time the better they sleep at night. And then I avoid the crankiness that comes with overtiredness. So, from now on I will stick to my guns. Naptime is a must!