My 3 year old son takes FORVER to goto sleep...is something wrong?

He could be going thru a growth spurt which would account for the extra energy. Check what you're feeding him for dinner for hidden sugars, its amazing how much is in our foods these days, could be spiking his blood sugar w/ out meaning to. Many little boys & girls feel that they are missing out on all the fun when they go to bed. Stick to his bedtime routeine & try not to go crazy.

does he take a long or later afternoon nap? My 4 yr old is starting to do that the last couple of days. Then he doesn't go to sleep until very late at night. I am going to try and get my new sitter to stop putting him down for a nap. It has changed his sleep pattern totally and he is one cranky kiddo.

You could try starting a calming routine earlier and putting him down earlier. Seems counter-intuitive, but a lot of the time when kids are wound up it's because they're over-tired. Not sure if this is the case, but could be worth a try.

I have two boys 3 and 4, exactly one year and one day apart who sleep in bunk beds in the same room. My 4 year old had the problem of not being able to sleep. We tried a few different nighttime routines. After trial and error we figured out he was so wound up from being tired he wasrunning on pure adrenalin. Our routing consists of dinner at 6pm, Bath time for both 7 or so, then we brush teeth right away so they know food for extra fuel is not an option. After, we read two books to them. This takes us to aroung 8 or so. We have comcast, with the Sprout Channel and the on Demand, we allow them to watch a 20 - 30 minute episode of Caillou or the old Tom and Jerry. We warn them when they have five minutes left of their show which leads to bedtime. We put them in. The first week or so we were still putting them in bed for the next hour, but as we persisted the time became less and less. Now they are in b/w 8 - 8:30.