How to get your 4 y/o to stop being a brat.

My oldest is almost 4 and sometimes he can be a wicked brat. I know that threenagers are a real thing, as we've experienced it wit him. He really is a good, sweet boy most of the time. He's really, really great with our 6 month old (looooong road trip this week and when the baby would cry he would get his teddy bear and play with him to make his brother stop crying until he fell asleep), and mostly good with our 2 1/2 year old. I say mostly because they are 15 months apart and the best way to describe their relationship is "best of friends, worst of enemies".A lot of times, mostly in public actually, he can be a total brat. He used to do this thing when he was getting upset at someone and point his fist at you and say "bam!". We know he picked this up from a kid at day care who was a really big trouble maker. He picked up some bad habits there. He's out of day care for the summer and starts pre-school this fall.While we were at the play ground the other day he tripped and fell. There was a bigger kid who came over and asked if he was ok and my son just yelled "no! go away!". I'm sure he was embarrassed, but we're so tired of him acting like that. We had a talk with him about it (we talk a lot with him about these things and about his/ ours/ others' emotions). And sometimes he freaks out when he doesn't get his way. Now, this isn't like "I want this!" at a store, because he's never had a tantrum for things he can't get at the store. But a recent example (on this car ride), we went into a rest stop bathroom and washed his hands. I waved my hand over the motion sensor paper towel dispenser. When I did, he full on collapsed to the floor (yeah, PUBLIC REST STOP BATHROOM FLOOR) and said he wanted to do it and started to cry.We want him to know it's ok to feel what you're feeling, but we also want him to respond to things appropriately. I do think we sometimes have high expectations (standards) for him even though he isn't even 4. He's just always acted older than he is.I guess I'm just wondering how much of this is normal and how much is him becoming bratty...Sorry if this is fragmented and hard to follow. Typing it in between work. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2r5kHj8