It appears I'm in the thick of a biting / hitting / pulling / tugging and general aggression phase.

It is awful, embarrassing and hard to navigate as a parent. My LO is 21 months an so so so great in so many ways, but I'm currently pretty frustrated / afraid to take him out in public for fear of what he will do. He is very verbal and is able to express himself very well. He hits me (bites / pulls etc) when he doesn't get what he wants or is over tired.

Recently he has started swatting / pulling at peers without provocation and that is really stressing me out.

I think we're dealing with some teething, he has been very sensitive in the cheek area but I don't know for sure (he already has 16 so we're just waiting on 2 year old molars).

HELP. what worked for you? how long did this phase last?
I do "time outs" (I remove him from the situation and talk to him about why we aren't where we were etc) and try to stop him from hitting if I can catch it in time. My husband sometimes brings out a pillow when he can tell the baby is angry for him to hit, but that doesn't seem to do much. I'm really sad about all this and hope this phase is done tomorrow!