Elijah is expressing his frustrations in increasingly exciting and charming ways.
The latest round of development began when he would simply say, "I hit," as he raised his hand to me. I was pleased that he would simply say it, and not actually hit. I was also a little surprised at how simple the expression was, because his sentences are usually more than two words.
As if in response to this thought, the expression morphed into "I hit you," or "I hit Daddy." Within a week of that, my son was saying, "I want to hit you," then "I want to hit you in the face," and, now, for the ultimate in clarity, "I want to hit you right in the face," with impeccable enunciation and absolutely no ambiguity. You can be very certain that THAT gets a few looks and raised eyebrows in the grocery store.
Oh... and he is accompanying that with occasional actual hitting, too. Destined for greatness.