Why So Clingy?

This week I have noticed that little J has become very clingy. I thought if he was ever going to have a clingy phase then I thought it would be towards me, but its not its actually Daddy. When there is just the two of us, we play, sing, dance and have lots of fun but when Daddy comes home or enters the room he changes. He becomes upset, whiny and wants Daddy to pick him up all the time. Once Daddy picks him up he stops but then if I try to talk to Daddy or come close little J pushes me away. Its like he wants Daddy all to himself. I feel really sorry for Daddy because he's not able to enjoy playing with little J at the moment because of this clingy behaviour. Now I know its probably just a phase, well at least I hope it is but I'm wondering if there is anything we can do in the meantime to make it more bearable. I have used my old friend google to find other families who are dealing with this and the advice is a bit of a mixed bag. Some say don't give in, don't pick him up or give him any extra attention whilst others say its a phase so just go with the flow and it will pass.  We have tried a bit of both and he is still very much 'I want daddy and I don't want anyone else to have him'  Last night he was the worst I have seen him. Daddy went upstairs and he screamed at the top of his voice pointing to the stairs. Poor Daddy was going to come straight back down but I gestured without speaking the words for Daddy to stay up there and I would try and distract him. I got on the floor and started to play with a toy that was close by. Little J continued to cry, waiting to see when Daddy was going to return. His eye wandered towards me as I just played. The volume of the cry lessened a little and he moved closer to me and the toy. He took the toy off me and he stopped crying. I talked to him and we played together and laughed. He was like a different child than the one two minutes ago, he didn't even notice 10 minutes later that Daddy had returned to the room.  So for now distraction and not giving in is working to a point, so i think we will stick to this but I would love to know if you have been through this.  What did you do? Was it just another Toddler Phase? You can read more from my series by clicking Toddler Days