Free baby... anyone?

We've all seen those mom's in whichever store your shopping in with the freaking out baby. I'm not talking about your average crying either, the child that you can hear from across the store, screaming for dear life. Normally I do my best to avoid staring because I feel bad for that parent and know that me looking over will do nothing to alleviate the situation and will possibly only make it worse giving that child attention. Until yesterday it had never been my child...

Beckett has started throwing little tantrums at home but we mostly just laugh (they are pretty funny when he throws himself down and rolls on the ground or tosses whatever is in his little hands and continues to pummel them into whatever is nearest to him. sorry if we are bad parents) . They've never been too bad until, again, yesterday. So here is what happened, I took Beckett out with me to run some minor errands. It was about an hour before nap time but I only had a few places to go and normally he's pretty good about it, even if it throws nap time off a little bit. We were in our second store (Joann Fabric's) and it got ugly. As soon as we walked in he starts crying/screaming. I'm trying to put him in the cart and he is kicking his legs and pushing off the cart. (At this point a 20 something guy in a pink shirt comes over to see what is going on) I finally get him into the cart and he slams his head into the front of it( what he does when he throws fits at home) and cuts his mouth. I feel bad for him and pick him up, try to anyways. He is now arching his back and moving around so I can't hold him while dripping blood mixed with saliva all over myself and him. I put him on the ground to see if he'll walk with me and he just screams and wants me to pick him up but then continues to do the hard squirming. I see that he is bleeding (I hadn't noticed the blood yet, just that he hit is face) and decide to rush for the bathroom. Everyone is staring. You can hear him throughout the store. I've ditched the cart at this point and I'm rushing through the store trying to find the bathroom. People are in my way just watching me. Very frustrating. I finally get into the bathroom where he won't calm down. I clean up the blood and run the water and he finally calms down. We're in there about 5 minutes and he seems to be ok so I decide to try going out again. I see someone about 10 feet from the bathroom and they make a remark to Beckett about "someone seems to have calmed down" - thanks very helpful lady. (sarcasm if you cannot tell) About 20 feet out of the bathroom the crying starts again but not quite as bad, he will still let me hold him. In my head I keep thinking this is embarrassing but I can't let him win so I go to look at patterns for curtains. about 3 min in when the crying has not stopped I give up... head for the exits. He starts to calm down again so I get a false sense of security, decide to look for some canvas storage boxes and 30 seconds later he is crying again but now has an employee as an audience. He sees the lady, I put him down and for a minute he is distracted with the small paintbottles she is putting away. Shorlty there after he starts tossing them around so mom picks him up and the crying begins agian. We are done! We head out, get beckett in the car seat and go home. Forget about Costco today, it's definitely not worth it! 2 minutes later, Beckett is asleep in the back looking like my little angel again... but I know better now.

I always knew the tantrums would come but for some reason got a false sense of security with beckett's easy going personality, boy was I caught off gaurd! Any tips from you experienced mom's who's children have lived through this stage?

Side note: we are in Connecticut and loving it! It is beautiful here and people are so friendly. We are still in the process of unpacking, mainly because we are painting the whole apartment and still getting furniture to put things away in. ( still don't know where the camera cord is so no pic's for a while) Will will take pictures soon so you can all see what life in CT is like!