Help! I'm Stuck!

As part of her quest for independence Bree now resists sitting anywhere that she's strapped in, like the stroller or the shopping cart. Since I know it must be frustrating to be a toddler, always going places on someone else's agenda and feeling really confused about whether you just want to be a baby or a big kid, I really try to give her some "wiggle" room on some issues. (Some, but not all! Brianna is getting better at accepting that on the important stuff, Mom always wins...hopefully.) So, I try to be understanding, especially about her need to walk on her own and be independent...she is afterall an independent spirit by nature. And, since I'm a stay at home Mom we usually don't have any type of pressing agenda so I try to respect her slow-poke pace when walking and give her a few moments to inspect a bug or collect a rock instead of constantly dragging her along by the wrist. My philosophy is, she's learning and needs the time to think about stuff. I don't want to rush her childhood by pulling her from one activity to another. But, this idea doesn't really work in the grocery store. It's just not cool to let your kid learn by opening a box of rice or throwing cans of peas in the aisle. So, she stays strapped in to the grocery cart and I frantically try to rush through my list before the tantrum begins. Actually though, recently instead of having a tantrum Bree just starts yelling "Help! I'm stuck! Help!" over and over again. That's what she did the last time we were at the store as we were going through the checkout line. This was much to the amusement of our cashier, especially when I started trying to explain to Bree that she wasn't stuck, Mommy had put her there on purpose, even while she continued to yelp about being stuck to anyone else who would listen. But, the minute I started pushing the cart away she stopped her yelling and calmy said "Bye-bye" to the checker. Toddler moods, they sway with the wind.