In all fairness, his brothers have tried claiming their fair share of the front seat. Rotations to different stops used to be an option. But somewhere along the line, Micah decided that rotations were for those who share, and he's not a sharer. His brothers are way more kind than I am. Ninety seconds into a screaming meltdown by the boy, they will say, "Micah, want to trade seats?" to which he replies by instantly turning off the tantrum, glaring at the offending brother as they cross paths, and triumphantly planting his bottom where he is sure it rightfully belongs.
Mama don't play that game. That kind of attitude is very much discouraged around these parts. I insist that he tell his brother thank you, and I remind the older boys that they were very kind in trading, but it was very much unnecessary. In fact, it would actually do the overgrown attitude a lot of good to be forced to sit elsewhere more than occasionally.
And yet, the other day Luke gave up his seat for Mr. Grumpypants just to keep peace in the van. I made Micah say thank you, which he signed with attitude. (I think it was more like "up yours" than "thank you" but his fine motor skills are a bit lacking so there's a lot of interpretive leeway.) Micah's attitude was firmly in the "not gonna fix it" state.
In an effort to improve the 'tude, I said, "hey, Micah! I love you today," to which he replied "yeh." That's his standard reply for that particular phrase. I'm pretending it means "I love you, too." I saw his attitude shift from Super Grumpy to Slightly Amused By The Peons Around Me. Since he wasn't Super Grumpy anymore, I figured I'd yank his chain a bit.
"Hey, Micah! I love Luke today."
Micah turned to look at me. His face was blank. Then he said, "Why?" And clearly meant it.
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