I am not sure whether this is what you describe - but ds8 has rather intense crushes. He clearly has a crush on his best friend in school - thank god she likes him a lot too, and so does her mom, though she also has close friends among the girls in class and DS just prefers her company above that of the other boys. I realized that the relationship was more intense for DS than just an ordinary elementary school boy girl friendship when I took him to her house for a play date and we brought a sweater she had forgotten somewhere. DS, sitting in the passenger seat in the car, sniffed the sweater, inhaled deeply in fact, and was very embarrassed when he noticed me noticing. I made a noncommittal remark about how it's interesting that you often can tell who a piece of clothing belongs to just by the smell, and he nodded, looking relieved. I kinda thought that was early at the age of 7.
