Why "Je t'aime", and not "J'aime toi?"

I'm not really good at French or anything like that; I'm still learning, and trying my best. Right now my French standard's pretty low, I can perhaps make out the gist of a news article, but nothing other than the gist. This article from About.com would give a rough idea about your fluency of a language (any language, not just French!), and right now I'd think that I'm still a survivor... moving on to a conversationalist!

Alright, so aimer in French means to love. One of the first few phrases I learnt in French was j'aime jouer le foot, which basically means "I like/love to play soccer". And then, from a beginner's point of view, to make a sentence "I love you" in French, it would simply be j'aime toi.

• Je is shortened to J' because it is followed by a vowel.
• Aimer is conjugated to become aime.
• Toi means you.

However, apparently j'aime toi is wrong! I didn't understand this until I learnt about reflexive verbs: je me lève (I raise myself, i.e., I wake), je me lave (I wash myself)... in these case the word me refers to myself! From a beginner's point of view, I never knew such a sentence structure existed in French... I always thought it had to be "[subject] [verb] [object...?]". I never knew it could be "[subject] [object] [verb]"!

Indeed language is very surprising. Je t'aime would then consist of the following:

• Je, which means "I".
• Te (you) is shortened to t' because it is followed by a vowel.
• Aimer is conjugated to aime (taking je into consideration).

Another way of saying "I love you" in French would be je t'adore, but I've no idea which one expresses a deeper sense of affection. For that, you have to ask someone who's better in French, someone who knows the nuances and subtleties of the language. I'm just learning and trying to share my experience right here, and I doubt any of it makes much sense anyway!