jquery fade element does not show elements styled 'visibility: hidden'
Solution 1:
Add a few calls to the chain like this:
$('.littleme').css('visibility','visible').hide().fadeIn('slow');
This will change it to display:none for 1 frame before fading in, occupying the area again.
Solution 2:
try using opacity and animate():
$('.littleme').css('opacity',0).animate({opacity:1}, 1000);