My dilemma

For the past few months, Jackson's been on a hitting spree with me. Basically, any time I do something he doesn't like, he hits me (or attempts to...sometimes, it's just him swinging his arm from across the room). It happens ALL THE TIME, no matter what I do. I could simply walk in the room and he swings. He does it when it's just the 2 of us, or when anyone else is in the room. Sometimes he makes contact, but most of the time he just swings, and I know what it's for.

My problem is, I can't figure out why he's doing this (is it something I did? or he saw?), nor what to do about it. I've read online all the tricks to dealing with this sort of thing: taking his hands, getting on his level, and telling him firmly NO (this just makes him angry and he hits more); separating him and putting him in "the naughty bed" (a portable Pack-n-Play which became a huge source of amusement for him when he realized he could take the bed apart); having him stand in the corner in a time out for 2 minutes ("Oh, look at this cool wall!"); ignoring him altogether (not even possible when he's whacking me in the face with his head). This problem didn't start yesterday, and I gave all these tricks a good shot, but none have worked and I'm at a total loss.

The worst part of it is, I'm really letting it get to me. Seriously, he's TWO and every time he swings at me, it chips away at my soul. I know how stupid that might sound, but I'm taking this VERY personally, as a sign that I've done something terribly wrong (ok...YES, I've spanked him in the past but it's rare!). He occasionally swings at Paul but it's a whole lot less frequent, and only in extreme cases (extreme for Jackson, like if Paul's taken away his favorite toy or denied him access to the toys in the man cave, his favorite play spot these days). He'll swing at me when I'm simply walking into a room. I've never seen him swing or hit any other person, but he spends most of his time with me.

Now, I'm sure I'm going to hear from a few people who call to tell me this is normal and a part of growing up and he's in his terrible two's and he's frustrated because he can't speak and blahblahblah. Maybe someone will tell me that he only does this because he loves me (yeah, I'm not so convinced). What I need is for someone to tell me what to do, to lead me in the right direction where I can make this stop for good and spend the rest of my days raising a beautiful child who loves his family and his dog. I don't even know where to look anymore.

Sorry for the depressing post. I love this boy more than my life and would do anything for him. I'm at a loss on this one though.