Knock on wood....

but I think we've done it! On day 3 (and beyond) I could just stand at the gate, and tell him he needed to lay down, and he would just do it!!!  The crazy part too, was I would just tell him nicely, not even needing to bust out my "I mean business teacher voice"! Sometimes in the day, he's got that selective hearing thing going, and just does whatever he wants to, but in the case of bedtime, he just complies with me asking nicely- who KNEW????
Another super nice thing about this whole deal, is now he just entertains himself in the mornings until we come get him.
Backstory: When Pierce was in his crib, I'd have the monitor on, and woke the second he started to move around in the morning. If he stood up, I'd immediately go get him (as opposed to him toss or only sit up- could be still sleeping I thought). Kim was asking why on earth I'd do this, and I remembered later that it all began b/c I didn't want him to get in the habit of crying for me. I thought that might reinforce him crying and getting what he wanted (out of crib), so I just would go and get him straight away. Of course by now, he has the vocab to say mama, help, or down, but that wasn't so several months back.... so that's why we did it that way and it worked for me.
Anyhow~ Now when he wakes up, he goes to his book basket and picks out a book, and reads it in bed. Fortunately Pierce LOVES to read, and is entertained endlessly with books. So the wondrous thing is, since we've made the toddler bed switch,  he is absolutely content to just hang out and read, letting his parents get a little extra sleepy time themselves in the mornings! Woohoo :)