No matter how sweet and lovable, Baby is determined not to miss out on a single developmental step.

For the past couple months, he’s been hitting. I’ll be holding him and he’ll whack me in the face. Or worse, head-butting (big and heavy head, very dangerous to weaponize). He’s clearly at a point where he knows what he’s doing, so we’d be teaching a bad lesson if we avoided the issue.

Idea 1: Leverage his advanced verbal capabilities and explain why it’s not ok.

Idea 1 results:

Me: “We don’t hit people, that’s owie.”

Baby: “We DO hit people.”

Me: “Do you know why I put you down?”

Baby: “Because I hit papa.”

Me: “That’s right, will you stop hitting?”

Baby: “I will NOT stop hitting.”

Idea 2: Try and come up with a “look” that says this is not ok.

Results: Baby hits me and just looks at my various looks. If you ever want to know what it’s like to lovingly interact with a violent sociopath, attempt idea 2.

Need more ideas. Mama approaches situation as sign of Baby not getting enough attention. He hits other kids sometimes, but it seems many are going through the same thing. We should probably stick to consistent reactions and wait it out. He has started a testing phase. Hopefully this phase will end before his mid-twenties.