The horror of babies...

I'm convinced that much of the genre of horror was created by observing and experiencing babies - both before and after birth. This is not to say that I don't love Zuperfliegen - and I wish you'd stop telling him that - you'll give him a complex. Still, as wondrous and remarkable as the experience is, there are elements that are very, very creepy.

Take the images revealed by ultrasound. I'd like to meet the person in whom the following creates feelings of love or attraction.

From self portraits

Our first ultrasound (6 weeks). He's only a few centimeters long ("the size of a lentil") and per my memory of biology class he's got gills (or maybe he used to have gills...).

From Singles 2011

And, so, in my mind he's really pretty much a "sea monkey" and I expected I might see him pushing a little sea monkey vacuum like the pictures on the sea monkey ads in the back of Mad Magazine when I was a kid. No vacuum. No cute little apron. This one isn't particularly scary but it does bring home thoughts of possession. There's something alive inside...quiet but lurking. (And the gills, think "Creature from the Black Lagoon".)

From Singles 2011

From Zuperfliegen

Ultrasound 2 (12 weeks) This is where things start getting creepy. Check out those big hollow, scary eyes. Certainly this visage inspired the big-eyed aliens of the "I've been abducted, lost time, and have a chip in my neck" variety.

From Singles 2011

(Unless, of course, they are real.)

Then, a couple of months later...he starts to move. Move and get much, much bigger. Move in such a way that I'd jump, startled, and hold my breath waiting for my abdomen to erupt. You saw "Alien", right?
And, "Loaf"? (You'll have to ask Kevin if you want to see this one.)

From Zuperfliegen

His last ultrasound photos show only disembodied limbs. This is what I'm waiting to bring into our lives? (Though on a more positive note, by the end even though we were both huge, he moved frequently enough that I no longer screamed out loud.)

From art plus

Birth. Obviously horrific. Zupe was zombie personified.

After birth he's still a horror. From the kitchen while he's "sleeping", I hear under-the-breath-murmurs, quiet grave statements which could easily have been lifted from Linda Blair in "The Exorcist".

From Ohio Spring!

And, then there's feeding: ravenous, gape-mouthed, attacking in a purposeful, driven though uncoordinated frenzy.