Derek's biggest beef with The Boy is that if he tries to put him to bed before he is ready, he's like a wild cat that has been locked up in a crate.  He'll start out pretty sane (only requesting to read 30 books) but then the evening will evolve into rather loud wailing and gnashing of teeth.  As a precaution, Derek now only puts The Boy to bed when he is ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE that he will go to sleep (e.g. The Boy falls asleep standing straight up, The Boy goes over to the gate in front of the stairs and pulls on it maniacally).  So this is what I heard last night.

E:  Ba', Daddy.
D:  Do you want to take a bath, Ethan?
E:  Os.  Ba', Daddy.
D:  Do you want to take a bath or a shower?
E:  BAAA', DADDY.

Derek turned around and asked me if I thought Ethan was ready for bed.  Now I'm not going to say that I can read my son's mind, but I'm going to go out on a limb and take a guess that a toddler that usually takes a 2 hour nap every day who has missed it that day and has been up for 13 hours is probably, I don't know, EXHAUSTED.

K:  Uh, YEAH!!!
D:  Well you know how I feel about taking him to bed when he isn't ready.
K:  He's ready.
D:  Do you really think he's ready?
K:  GO give the kid a bath and put him to bed already.

The bath was over before I knew it.  This is what I heard from upstairs.

D:  Ethan, do you want to read a book or to go downstairs with Momma.
E:  Bed, Daddy.
D:  Do you want to read or go with Momma?
E:  BED, Daddy.

I was starting to think that maybe Dad had wax in his ears or something. 

D:  Maybe we should go downstairs with Momma.
E:  BED, Daddy.
D:  So you want to read a book?
E:  (sounding relieved).  Os, Daddy.  BED.

With that they read one book.  Then The Boy asked if he could turn out the light.

Do you think he was ready for bed?  Do you think my husband needs to have his ears examined?

Derek came back downstairs.

K:  Are you OK?
D:  Yeah, why?
K:  How many times did the kid have to tell you that he wanted to go to bed before you realized he wanted to go to bed?
D:  I just wanted to be sure.
K:  So his telling you REPEATEDLY was not sufficient.
D:  (laughing) Maybe.
K:  I'm sitting here on the couch listening to the kid say "bed" incessantly and you are asking if he wants to come downstairs.
D:  I wasn't sure.

So we are going to have to spell everything out for him, I guess.