  This week has seen some sort of regression in Aidan. After going months without an accident (of the potty-sort), he had one at school yesterday. Plus, he's wet his bed for the past two nights in a row. I don't know if it represents some sort of development where he has to devote his brain to the new stuff, or if it's a stress response.
I'm just watching and waiting to see where this goes. Additionally, we've developed a morning battle over the past two weeks regarding putting socks and shoes on. It's not that he resists it, but rather he won't focus long enough to do it. As has always been our school routine, I lay out his clothes and go to make his lunch as he puts them on. I have always had to yell a few reminders to "do his job," but he generally did it. Lately, I peek in on his progress to find him twirling his socks around or playing with his sister. Last week, I tried to respond with punishments as consequence for not doing his job. I took away privileges to only a limited success. I sat him on his bed or in the corner, but when he promised to be nice and do his job and got up to do it, he was just as day dreamy as before the punishment.
One day, one of his teachers mentioned to me how much she's enjoyed watching Aidan's development blossom. She complimented his friendliness, his social amour, his communication, and more. This made me feel comfortable enough to ask her the next day for advice about our morning battle. She said to send him to school barefoot. She said I don't need another battle on my hands and they can put his socks and shoes on without any trouble. I mentioned to her my fear that this is just the first of what could be a lifetime of daydreaming when responsibility showed up. She said I didn't have anything to worry about because Aidan is a model student. I decided to ponder this a while and talk to John before deciding whether her advice could work for us.
The next day I asked his other teacher if she's noticed Aidan not doing his jobs (it's a jobs oriented school, very Piaget). Her answer blew me over. She said only when you're here. The first teacher's advice was basically to avoid the battle that I'm clearly losing anyway. And his problem wasn't that he didn't want to wear shoes, so I thought a simpler method than sending him to school barefoot was to just put his shoes on for him at home.
The whole reason I'd started him on doing it by himself was to save me time, and the battle was actually taking up more time. This morning was the first time I tried it, and I have to say it was like grease on wheels. He was so happy to have me there. We did it together and he quizzed me on left and right feet just as he used to before the school routine ever started.
It made me think maybe it was the attention he was after, and through the battle he was getting it, even if it was negative. We'll see if the success continues to tomorrow, but I think I have my solution. 
