Personality Switching

Parenting a toddler is a study in opposites.

Or perhaps more patience.  Yep, definitely patience more than anything else.

See, Cole seems to occasionally have these random personality switches.

One moment, he'll be demanding me to leave him alone, asserting his independence...and the next, he's as helpless as a baby. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I present Exhibit One:

1. We are making Cole's instant oatmeal together - it's time to open the oatmeal packet:

-"COLE! COLE TURN!" while pointing emphatically at himself. 
-"Ok, let me get it started for you."
-"NO MAMA! COLE!"
-"Ok, give it a try."
       ...
"MAMA HEYP! HEYP PEESE!" (Help please)

Yuh-huh.  I thought so.

Exhibit Two:

2. 
-"Cole, I need to go upstairs for a moment and grab something...want to come too?"
-"NO MAMA. I STAY. STAY."
-"That's fine.  But I'm only grabbing my cell phone, ok?  I'll be back in a moment, so no tears, right?"
-"YEAH!"
... Halfway up the stairs, I hear him hysterically sobbing "MAAA-MAAA!!! MAAAA-MAA!" like I'm leaving him forever instead of simply running up the stairs for less than a minute to grab my cell phone.  I return to see his face streaked with tears as he runs to hug me like "THANKS FOR COMING BACK FROM YOUR LONG TRIP WHERE I THOUGHT WERE ABANDONING ME FOREVER AND THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN IN MY LIFE, MAMA!"

sigh.

Exhibit 3:

3.
   We're in bathroom, where I'm helping Cole undressed and on the potty.
-"PIE-SEE PEESE!" (privacy please) he tells me.  "YEAVE MAMA!" (leave)
- "Okey dokey kiddo.  I'll be right in the other room."
...the instant my foot steps outside the bathroom door:
-"MAMA! MAMA! BACK!  MAAA-MAA!"

::face palm::

So we alternate between this:

 and this:

Someone please tell me these personality switches even out later on down the road?