Superbaby

(I'm not sure why I'm on a bit of a Superman kick right now, but I'll try to change it up after this one!)

So the other day I was watching Cleo in her swing. Calm, content, kind of smiling. Then suddenly... MASSIVE FREAKOUT! She just starts screaming, instantly red in the face! I rush over to pick her up, convinced something is pinching her and... nothing. She whimpers a little bit, but calms down easily enough and is smiling at me a minute later. I talked to H about it a while later and she says the same thing happened to her the other day.

What's going on here?

Well, my working theory right now is based on Clark Kent, specifically Smallville. I have a hard time with the  "soap opera" aspect of Smallville, but I've always enjoyed their take on the evolution of Big Blue.

Having laser eyes is so hard! (Cue
 Paula Cole's "I don't want to wait")

When Smallville starts, Clark has two powers: super strength and super speed. Over the series he develops all of the powers we associate with Superman with flight being the last. Each one has its own Very Special Episode:  X-Ray (X-ray vision), Heat (Heat Vision), Whisper (Super Hearing), and Sneeze (Super Breath).  All of them (Whisper is a partial exception, but basically the same) follow the same pattern:

Clark suddenly develops a new power. This power causes massive chaos and inconvenience to him and really freaks him out. As the episode progresses, he learns to cope with it and usually defeats someone evil with it. It then becomes a part of his life and completely under his control by the next episode.

I think being a newborn is like this. Life is blurry and unfocused and then suddenly... CLEAR VISION POWER! Or she's just flailing around then suddenly... SUPER GRIPPING POWER! Eventually these just become part of her life and are no big deal, but that first time is a big Keanu Reeves style "Whoa".

My proposal to H is that we need to find an evil baby that Cleo can defeat with her new powers in order to give her closure, but H has frowned on this idea. In truth, it's hard to figure out which baby's are evil (though I have my suspicions) and I don't think Cleo is equipped to deal with an inner turmoil episode that usually happens when a hero beats up someone who it turns out is NOT evil. We're pretty much just into the first season and that's more of a second or third season episode anyhow when the story lines become more complex.

However, come fall of 2014, watch out evil babies!