a hard day's nite

we have a newish bedtime around our house. 7pm. and it is magical. nobody ever told me i could put my kids to bed at 7pm and i wish they would have.
basically, hayden stopped taking naps during the day which led to an even more cranky kid. on top of no napping, he wakes up at 6am sometimes even before that (he's not supposed to leave his room until 7, although he's been trying to change that rule lately, like today being downstairs before 6am i believe). even though he can more or less tell time, when we told him we were changing bedtime from 8pm to 7pm, he didn't fight us at all. weird.
i look at it like this. if bedtime was 8pm, that meant he started getting ready at 8pm. so by the time he got changed, went potty, brushed his teeth, had a book read to him and then finally fell asleep it was about 9pm. so starting at 7pm just means he's getting to sleep around 8pm. there are some nites he is so tired that we don't hear a sound from him after putting him to bed.
he's a super active kid that never stops so he still would take naps if he actually laid in his bed. but these days i just hear him in there playing and about an hour later he "sneaks on me" by crawling as quietly as he can down the hall, into the kitchen and to the basement stairs thinking i don't hear him. the days that we go somewhere, he typically always falls asleep in the car because he really is that tired. he just refuses to give it up when at home.
so last nite dave put him to bed and we heard him in there playing. it's rare that he does that at nite but i just decided to let it go as i figured he'd be out in no time. dave and i were watching our thursday nite lineup on tv (which is a big one!) and i thought i heard hayden. suddenly he pops up from the side of the couch and starts giggling. it was pretty funny. so we send him back to bed. and we hear him playing some more.
after a bit i didn't hear anything. i looked at dave and asked how much he bets he had just crashed on his floor. a little while later i got up and noticed he had a little light on in his room. so i open the door to turn it off and check on him and this is what i find:



he even built a ramp out of his pillow and stuffed dog. quite creative. even after a full day and at 9pm.