Developmental notes: the varieties of affection

Wild Thing has been working hard at figuring out how to express affection lately. "I love you" is pretty much old hat by now, so he's begun experimenting. Since he's figured out that people who are married love each other a lot (in theory, and, in his personal experience, in practice), he's begun proposing to people. He's recently offered marriage proposals to me as well as to his mother and grandmother.

Yet more charming: yesterday morning, he gave me a big hug and said, "Daddy--you're my best friend." I'm still emitting a faint glow from that one. But it's also fascinating to see him trying to figure out how one expresses strong affection and attachment. The adult world subdivides and categorizes all that stuff in a thousand different ways, and it seems as if he's starting to see that, even though what he feels is still (relatively) straightforward.