My son beats me up

Of course, he's only doing it out of love. It started long ago, when he was tiny and harmless. When he first started giving kisses, around 3-4 months old, he'd open his mouth very big and nom on my chin. And for hugs, he'd put his forehead to mine and hold my head. I loved every minute of it! Well, until he got teeth, then the kisses got a little dangerous.With Marty, being a boy and all (ewwwww, kisses!), they found another expression of love. Instead of just holding his forehead to Marty's, Oliver would bonk it instead, kind of like football players do. I actually don't know who started this, if Marty (gently) would do it to Oliver or vice versa. Well, it became a thing, and so it wasn't long before he was doing it to me too.

Let me reiterate: it was really cute at 4, 6, even 8 months old. Now he knows how to give a real kiss. In fact, sometimes he'll smother me with kisses, saying "muah, muah, muah" over and over again. Or he'll sit on my lap and we'll have staring contests, both going "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" as long as we can until there's one big "Muah" at the end and a big slobbery kiss to go along with it. Who wouldn't love that? Well, he's still doing the head butting thing too, and at almost 18 months and with a really big head....it hurts!!! In addition, his aim is not the greatest, so very often, he hits my  nose instead of my forehead. He's been a bit more clingy lately, and we'll be sitting on the couch with him in my lap reading or playing or hanging out, when he'll just stop and look at me, and then all of a sudden, on purpose, he'll rear his head back and snap it forward....bonk! Yesterday I got it in the nose 3 separate times. So hard that I'm sure that he's broken it and am surprised when there's no blood. I try to tell him "no, that hurts mommy!", but he just laughs and laughs and thinks it's so much fun. How do I punish him for what he thinks is an expression of love? Someone told me once that your nose grows as you age. Maybe this is why?

I think I'm starting to understand what they mean when they say, "You'll love them so much it hurts!"

And because it looks weird to me to have a post without a picture, here's one of my recent new favorite pictures. If Oliver's being a pest at the grocery store grabbing at things, all we have to do is give him a bag of frozen veggies and he's happy. He's not even teething anymore, but he still loves it! See: