Meanness

So OoA#2, boyfriend, is terrified of children. He is also terrified of flying monkeys, witches, and munchkins, but children are more common and equally terrifying to him. He is a nice guy generally but grumpy by nature to people he is very close to. It drives his mother mad and made his previous fiancee' apopletic with rage; he will literally say no when he means yes just as a reflex and growl when asked for assistance. It's gotten really annoying lately and we've actually had some huge, one-sided fights about it, with me getting hugely angry and him apologizing but once I'm mad, I'm mad. And I'm tired of discussing it with him. So today we were at the hockey game and the folks in front of us had their little baby man, about eight months old, and he was grinning at us. I scooped him up and let him grab my fella and just squeeze the crap out of his shirt and hair and everything his spitty little precious paws could grab. Cute as shit. OoA is steadily protesting, squirming, asking me to stop, stating ow, while we are laughing foolishly, egging on the baby, and taking pictures. I did it twice. The baby had a ball. Once we got home OoA remonstrated with me; after all, he had asked me to stop. "How does it feel?  When someone knows you'll be upset but you do something anyway." I asked. "Oh. You were getting me back. That's not like you." He was amazed.  We'll see if he learned anything.