I will never forget when my girlfriend, who holds a double masters in Child Psychology and Child Development in addition to 15 years in the teaching arena and 5 in private practice, gave me advice over and over again with my first child. She had no children at the time and although I respected her input, I always had in the back of my mind, "just wait until you have your own, we will see how well those degrees works then."
One year later she had her first child, and low and behold, she was the first to admit her tactics learned over many years with children never seemed to work with her own children.
Basically, your efforts will pay off, you just cannot see it since your connection is so much deeper. In short, as mothers, we worry incessantly, and our perfect little angels, that would never do what we saw other people's children do, are doing those embarrassing things to us too.
Your daughter does not seem to be off the mark to me at all, especially since she is a girl. I have two boys and two girls and the one thing I learned real quick is emotional tantrums over little things are VERY typical with girls. I also learned recently that girls have their first hormonal surge at 2 1/2 to 3 years old. Explains a lot huh?
The situation you outlined really says to me that she loves the game and doesn't want it to stop. Seems minor to us but to her it is her whole life - she wants to play with mommy. When my 2 1/2 year old does this sort of thing, I usually just say calmly that the game is done and I move on. She may scream and cry but I give it NO energy, not even time out. You will be amazed how quickly they quit. As you know, your attention is what she is after, so any sort of response is destine to encourage the behavior.
Good luck!
P.S. Forgot to tell you, just wait for the fun tantrums you get to experience when the new baby takes some of the spotlight. = )