Yeah, I'm an Anime Nerd

I love Anime! I thought it was about time for a blog post about something other than babies. ;) I know some of you reading this might be like "huh? What is Anime?". If you've never heard of Anime it stands for Japanese Animation. They are basically cartoons, but usually the animation is far superior to typical american cartoons. Also the content is normally much deeper and more mature that the cartoons most people are used to. By mature I don't mean like the Simpsons or Family Guy or the like. I guess some Anime can be like that, but that's not the type of Anime I watch. (I hate the Simpsons or anything like it, just FYI.) What I mean by mature is that the content can be much too scary or sad or complicated for young kids. Most Anime's advise viewers be over the age of 14 or in their older teens at least.

Before Pacific Rim there was Gundam!!

I think around 13 or 14 is about the age when my brother and I started watching Anime. Toonami on Cartoon Network all the way! All of the shows on Toonami were censored for young teens. I remember if there was blood in the original scene then it was colored out so you couldn't see it. Any curse words like hell or damn were normally substituted with heck or darn. I can't remember if the first anime I watched was Dragon Ball Z or Gundam Wing.  I loved them both!

I used to act out my own stories of Dragon Ball Z on my trampoline.

A couple more of my favorites growing up were Outlaw Star and G Gundam. I specifically remember thinking the show Sailor Moon was lame and such a girl show. I would always roll my eyes and change the channel whenever it came on. I thought the show Hamtaro was cute and liked to watch it when I caught it on. All of the shows I watched growing up were dubbed, but now if I watch an Anime it's hard for me to watch it dubbed. I always choose subtitled over dubbed episodes. The american voice actors never seem to be able to sound anything but lame compared to the Japanese voice actors. The only Anime I will watch dubbed are the shows I watched as a kid. I remember whenever my dad was around while Scott and I were watching Gundam Wing he would always make fun of it and make up his own dialogue for the characters. Haha!

Seriously, it's a show about Hamsters.

I'm very careful with the Anime I choose to watch. There's a lot of Anime that has content I don't want to see. Anime has such a variety of shows that the content can range anywhere from PG to unrated. I'm very leery when starting a new anime. It takes me some time to really get into one too. It's like a good book, but once I get hooked it's hard to not read the next chapter and in this case watch the next episode. Normally, the only way I start a new anime is if Sam tells me I might like it. He has great judgement in what I will like to watch.

The show is named after the main character. Naruto Uzumaki.

A few of years ago Sam said he thought I would like watching an Anime called Naruto. I watched a few episodes as he watched it, but only here and there. Gradually I became more interested and before I knew it I was hooked. I told Sam he couldn't watch any more episodes without me. :) Even as I write this I'm watching old episodes that I missed when we first started watching Naruto.

The show is about Ninjas. Need I say more?? It's awesome. It has great character development and the story will keep you guessing about what's going to happen next. It will keep you laughing with it's silliness, but then also be quite serious at other times and cause you to think deeply about life and the choices you make.

We watched the entire first series and started on the next series called Naruto Shippuden, but didn't get too far. Then we took a break for a couple years. (you know, had a baby and all that jazz.) Just a few months ago we got back into it. We watch a couple episodes together almost every night. We love it.

They get a little older and cooler in the second series.

The other night we were talking about our favorite characters in the show. I've always been torn between Kakashi Hatake and Shikamaru Nara. I mean Kakashi has a Ninja Pug named Pakkun, that's pretty hard to beat in my book.

Kakashi & Pakkun

In a recent episode I realized that Shikamaru is my favorite character. Shikamaru hadn't been in an episode in a while and when his character was highlighted on an episode, I was like "yay! Shikamaru!" I started to wonder why Shikamaru was my favorite character. I mean he's a cool character, but there are lots of cool characters in the show.

Shikamaru

I started to consider Shikamaru's personality and characteristics. He can be seen as a lazy Ninja because he doesn't do anything that is unnecessary. He doesn't care to do something just because someone else thinks he should. He also doesn't care much about what others think of him. All the superficial cares of those around him don't mean anything to him. His catchphrase is "what a drag." or "What a pain." But that doesn't mean that he won't do what is needed to protect his friends or village. He is very protective of his friends and will do anything for those close to him. He is extremely intelligent and is known for his great strategic mind. He sees straight through the enemy's attempts to deceive him. I really like his quiet confidence. His confidence doesn't come off cocky. He is aware of his strengths, but doesn't gloat. He is a very steady guy and stays calm in stressful situations when everyone else is freaking out. Because of that he doesn't show many emotions, but it doesn't mean he doesn't have them. A lot of times it seems like it would be too much trouble to him to try to explain his feelings so he doesn't waste his time trying.

I admire all of Shikamaru's characteristics and after thinking through it, I figured out why. Everything I just explained about Shikamaru also explains my husband almost to a tee. :D Sam also happens to be my favorite person.

So basically I married a Ninja. WIN!!

We love Fall

I took a bunch of pictures of Jane outside the other day and looking back at them I love them all! I'm not sure how they all turned out so well, but I figured they deserved their own blog post. Also I haven't been blogging about Jane much at all since I got pregnant with the new baby. I can't let Jane lose all the attention before this baby is even born! ;)

Looking like a little model here.

She's growing up so fast! She's holding her little Mario action figure here. She loves him and will give him kisses. I'm already passing on my love of Nintendo. :) She likes most things around that size though. My mom set up my old dollhouse in Jane's room at her house and there are several little babies that go with it and she'll carry them around too, kiss them and call them baby. She will call Mario baby at times.

She came and laid down on my leg

Jane has become so affectionate. She loves to give kisses and hugs. She will give me a hug almost every time I ask for one. It's the best! Just yesterday, when she was running around outside she stopped, looked at me and came over to give me a hug and then she went back to running around the yard. She repeated this several times. I have to be honest though. She is a toddler and we are trying to learn not to hit or bite or pull hair, but the hugs make all of it worth it and she'll learn one day!

The lighting was so great on this beautiful afternoon

Walking is now second nature for Jane. She is now on to running! I try to keep her from running too much on concrete because I don't want her to skin her knees. She's already had a couple skinned knees just from loosing her balance when she wasn't quiet the pro walker she is now. It makes me so sad to see any kind of scratch on her. I try to remember all my skinned knees and scratches from exploring when I was young. They never bothered me growing up. I would take bumps and bruises over not exploring! :)

Inspecting a tree

Jane has already acted like she was going to climb a tree or two. I already have a monkey on my hands indoors! She tries to climb everything! I think she can climb up on every chair in the house now. She has learned there are things she is not allowed to climb on. Like the coffee table and the subwoofer. She is obedient when she realizes I'm serious and I stay consistent. It's amazing how much obedience is about the parent staying consistent and strong.

So much love

I love that Jane likes to sit in my lap while we're outside. We'll watch the cars go by or the planes in the sky. I will make bird noises with grass and Jane will pull up a piece of grass and put it to her mouth and try to imitate the sound. It's so cute!

Giving me a kiss

Her kisses are so sweet. She will get close to my face and make kissing noises with her mouth several times. She will give Sam kisses goodnight. It melts my heart! :) She sometimes tries to kiss the characters in a book. It's so fun.

Watching the busy world around her

She decided to lie down in the grass and watch the world go by for a minute. About a month ago Jane started to fall asleep on her own for her naps without me even trying to get her to go down. We would just be sitting on the couch and she would just fall asleep in my arms or right next to me. I guess it was around the same time I stopped nursing her. Strangely enough, sleeping seems to have gotten better all around for Jane since she stopped nursing. Some days I have to remind her she needs to nap so she can feel better and keep playing. She takes her naps on the couch now while I work. It works out great for us.

Serious face

Silly face!

Well, I need to wrap up this up. Jane is growing up so fast and is making this pregnancy go by so fast! I can't believe I'm almost halfway through already! I'll leave you with a few more pictures from our fun day outside! We are loving the beautiful fall weather and are enjoying the outdoors as much as we can.

Riding on mom's back is so fun!

Love these hugs

And those smiles

Got a nice pose on this one

Love this girl so much!!