Is it possible that a ball python might WANT to be held all the time??

[BPmom]

So my fairly new (about 2-3 months) 6-7 year old ball python has a habit of being more active when I come home from work. I’ll come in, he’ll be calm, and when I walk by his tank, he starts moving all around his cage. Smelling every inch of the cover, climbing over the humidity gage, constantly following me around the room. It’s not what Iv read online about ball pythons, but it’s as if he’s telling me to hold him. When I open the cover, he sits there. Doesn’t move, doesn’t try escaping or reaching to the top... he just waits. And when I do pick him up, he curls around my arm and holds on tight (he even tightens when trying to pass him on to my fiancé who will have full support and handle of him, yet he tightens harder like he doesn’t want me to let him go.) I am, well, WAS deathly afraid of snakes until this guy came along and seems to prefer me over anyone else in the house. When I pick him up, he won’t let me go. When someone else is holding him, he bravely will try to stretch his body towards me.

anyways, since he’s still kind of new and Iv never handled, let alone owned a snake before him, I do get a bit nervous when he starts trying to travel up my arm, like towards my face. It’s 85 degrees out so I don’t wear gloves or sleeves. I know your not supposed to let a pet snake near your face or anything in front of his face but he always tries coming straight up my chest or makes his way up my arm. When we first got him, I have seen him scare himself by hitting the back of his neck on his own body and he turned and bit himself twice! Again, he seems comfortable with me enough with picking him up and holding him, but is it okay to let a semi-new snake climb towards my face? Do I move him away or just let him explore ny head/neck? I’m nervous about him scaring himself again or accidentally striking my neck.

He also does does not like when I put him back, he tries to slide out of the tank up my arm again. Is it possible he wants to explore or is there another reason he’s acting like this?