I wanted to double black's pawns with the intention of not allowing them to be undoubled

? I was glad to see the opportunity to in double my pawns and taking a central pawn

Had reservations about this. I felt I needed to support my d pawn and develop my bishop, but felt I was offering black a way to undoubled pawns.

Gaining more control of the center with tempo.

With queens off the board, losing castling rights is less of an issue I figured.

Best square for king safety.

This served two purposes, to open a square for my knight and to push a passed pawn

Taking away a square from black's knight

Putting my knight on the good square I pushed the pawn to get

I think I was planning on moving my a rook to the b file, then play knight a5 expecting b6 then knight c6