Declaring Independence

It hadn't really occurred how independent Sam has always been until I had Marie. Now that she's getting older (all of 4 months now) I can see a huge difference between the two. Sam has always been fine without me. He knows I'll be back and while I'm gone he has his own agenda, things he wants to do. This was really nice when I ended up in the hospital because he was such an easy baby that I never had to worry about him. He took the bottle nicely and when I was able to nurse again he switched back patiently. He was fine with who ever had him and never complained.
Now he just flat out wants to do things his OWN way. He wants to hold Marie without any help and if help is offered then say goodbye to Sam. He wants to feed himself and doesn't want help. He likes to put on his shoes without help usually which means they often go on the wrong foot. He also likes to wear my shoes.
He basically has reached a point where most of the time he doesn't want my help at all. Daddy on the other hand can help sometimes better than I can. Daddy is cooler... or something. Yesterday we went to the park and Sam declared his independence loud and clear. He did NOT want my help with ANYTHING except getting on and off the swing and getting a good push while he was on it. He is always saying yes to everything so when he says no he means NO. I got a lot of "No, No", pushing my hand (or me) away, and general stubbornness when I tried to help at the park. He wanted to do it all on his own.
Marie on the other hand seems to be very clingy to me. She screamed, and I mean blood curdling, when I turned her over to the Dr today and chased Sam. She didn't calm down until she had my full attention again and so the appointment was a little exciting. I'm finding she does that fairly frequently when I've been gone for a bit or if she just decides she wants me to hold her. She's still the cutest girl on the planet but boy does she get upset sometimes if she doesn't get her mommy.