Stepping on Cracks

Elena is currently lying on the living room floor, in tears, screaming "I can't come down there," referring to the fact that she was upstairs ten minutes ago and wanted me to carry her down. I said no and that she had feet of her own, and the result was as described above. She's been very whiny, lately, mostly in regards to being carried. Do I just lay down the law and let her do it herself from now on? I can't indulge her every whim, but the back-and-forth between "yes I can" and "no I can't" is causing the whining to escalate when the latter comes up. The fact of the matter is, she's big! Twenty-five pounds of giggling pre-schooler is a lot, especially when there's another twenty pounds of wiggling toddler on the other side, which there usually is. Thank goodness my kids are on the small side, and Kim and Jessica, I don't know how you did it with your Amazonian girls. (Now she's tearfully taunting the cat into swiping at her, at which point she'll come crying to me with a story about how she's been wronged in life.) When does this get better? And what are the best creative outlets (on a small budget, with minimal travel) for an active and very bright nearly-three-year-old? I know it kills her that we're stuck in the house with a moody mom and nowhere to go. We can't even walk to the playground, anymore, now that schools back in. The next closest one is a half-hour walk away, and if I'm going to walk that far I'd rather walk to the store, where it's air conditioned. The problem is that walking to the store means two hours in the stroller, for the kids. At least when we go to the park they get to run around for that middle hour, and they fall asleep on the way home. Sigh... Anyway, I need to finish tidying up the house. I'll see some of you soon.