Independence at 16.5 months

The boy is getting so big, so fast.  He's so independent these days and he's beginning to assert his will and display his personality.  He's testing boundaries and pushing back on pretty much everything.

• My son who eagerly crawled up the stairs each night for bath time, now happily runs around naked, but refuses to sit in the tub.  He's stopped crying every night (thank goodness that only lasted about a week) but there's no way he's sitting down and making things easy.
  
• He recently tried signing to my Mom that he wanted to 'eat' right at the exact moment she put him into the crib for nap time; Good try little man, your Popo is way tougher than that.
  
• The boy refused plastic spoons in favour of regular cutlery months ago and now rarely lets me feed him, or even help guide the spoon into his mouth.  He does let me load the spoon up with food, but I need to put it back on his tray for him to pick up himself or he purses his lips and shakes his head no.
  
• The boy waited 14 months before he started walking, two months later he's running and refusing to hold our hands.  Fortunately once he figured out what the Teddy Bear Harness was for, he was in love.  He now pulls at it on the way out the door, this silly little bear means his freedom and he knows it.

I'm so proud of him, he's taking the world by storm and I love it.  The fact that its all happening so quickly and I'm away from him for so much of each day, I don't love quite so much.  Although I know he will always need me, I also know he'll never need me in quite the same way.  I guess just as the boys independence strengthens him, it tests my resolve by tweaking my working mommy guilt.

How is your little one expressing his/her personality?
How do you cope with your child's budding independence?