Grocery Shopping with a special needs child

Ok, it has finally gotten to the point where I cannot go the grocery store with Evan alone. I used to be able to put him in the cart but with his AFO's this is almost impossible and without it is almost impossible as well. So we reverted to putting him in the basket, well on Friday I figured out he takes up the entire basket so this is pretty much out unless I only need things that will fit in the front of the basket. The other day I had him in his wheelchair and Gabriel was with me, so I tried hooking the handles on Evan's wheelchair to the front end of the basket and this worked out OK except when I tried to turn the cart, the chair would not turn. There has to be someway we can get shopping cart manufacturers to make carts that have supportive seating attached to them. I mean they make the fun carts for younger or typical kids why can't they do something for special needs kids. Think about something like what they have for the infants but bigger and hooked to the front of the cart with a handle like they are now, so the child is first then the cart. Are you picturing this? Wouldn't it make life easier if we could take our child who uses a wheelchair either all the time or a majority of the time to the grocery store with us. I can take Evan for short trips where I can fit a few things on this wheelchair but anymore than that is just not going to work. Although, I would like to commend Evan because when we were at Wal-Mart the other day he did really well walking with me and staying with me for abotu 80% of the trip. We had to cut it short because he then started running away but it was a lot easier than I thought. I do not think I will do it again anytime soon but it is good to know that when the planets are aligned perfectly Evan can be loose in the store.

Note to Grandma Josie: Evan thinks every shopping trip should be like the ones with Grandma where he gets to put everything the cart that he wants :) He picked out cupcakes, pbj sandwiches, and chocolate syrup. Well those are the things that I let him get. I was laughing at him. But he did pretty well when I told him no to most of what he pointed at.