Hey all… time to snoop through Noah’s diary again. Why? Because we can.
Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 9:15am:Ursula and Ruth are off at school, the baby’s sleeping, and the house is in good enough shape that I can relax this morning.
We have rehearsal tonight for a couple corporate Christmas party gigs this weekend… kinda hate the corporate gigs. Yeah, the money’s good, but there’s usually a dress code and a swear code and a don’t do the butt-wiggling twerk dance code so they’re kinda boring.
On the upside, they tend to end early so I get a decent sleep before Ursula pounds on the door at 6:45am on Saturday demanding I get up and make her breakfast pancakes.
Which is annoying, but I guess time flies and it won’t be that many more years before she stops wanting to eat breakfast with her ol’ man… it’s just that it would be nice if she could hold off ’til 9am.
It’s funny: Saturday is the only morning Ursula not only gets up early but wants to get up early. I swear Monday through Friday she’s trying to oversleep. You’d think she was up all night working graveyard shift or something the way she complains and is all groggy when she has to get up for school.
I mean, sure: the odd time I have heard her up as I’m getting home from a gig in the middle of the night, but I’m pretty sure it’s ‘cause she hears my car come in and me opening the door even though I try to be really quiet. I have wondered at times if she’s up drawing or whatever and that’s why she’s so tired in the mornings, but it’s kinda hard to spy on her and find out. If I were to open the door to peek, that would wake her up for sure, so that’s a no-go.
And she still insists on a night light so there being a bit of light showing under the door doesn’t tell me anything. Granted, she insists she’s not afraid of the dark herself, but she says Ken Garoo requires the night light because his schedule is all upside down, being a kangaroo and from Australia and all that. Also, Mr. T-Rex requires the night light so he can keep an eye out for asteroids.
I tried to wean her off the night light and just have her use her fairy curtain light since it’s dimmer but she says Ken Garoo requires more light than that at night for his upside down biorhythms. I asked if it wasn’t time Ken adjusted to his new home here in Canada and our biorhythms here but she insists that’s impossible.
Ugh… Ken’s a stuffie, kiddo. He hasn’t got biorhythms… but… I play along. For now. And so the night light stays on.
Which is to say that Ursula could very well be staying up all night to draw. I gotta figure out a way to sniff that out.
I mean, I know sometimes she does get up in the middle of the night because sometimes in the mornings she’s curled up in her little reading nook and not in her bed. Which is weird because she never has any books over there and the swag lamp isn’t on in the mornings, but then she kinda likes to make blanket forts in there and would defend said forts with her super-soakers if we didn’t insist that they stay out in the pool cabana so I don’t get blasted with cold water for trying to make her get up and go to school.
Ursula’s pretty sensitive to noise, too. I think when Valerie was born that messed up Ursula’s sleep, too, ‘cause of Valerie crying and fussing in the night and me and Ruth having to get up with her. It’s a lot of disruption for a kid to get used to. Fortunately, Valerie’s a much better sleeper now than she used to be.
I used to wonder if maybe Ursula just sleeps better and feels more secure when I’m home from a gig, but she’s just as tired and cranky on mornings when I didn’t have a gig the night before.
Maybe she’s just a night owl. I think a lot of artists are. I mean, us music guys kinda have to be because we play in bars and those are the business hours, but I think a lot of painters are still night owls even though they don’t have to be gig-wise.
Of course, try telling Ruth that. She’s a morning person so she doesn’t get it.
Anyway, just 8 more school days ’til both Ursula and Ruth are home for a couple weeks of Christmas break and suddenly Ursula will be getting up early like Ruth, albeit it so she can watch cartoons and bug me for pancakes.
Gotta squeeze in as much solo Mario Kart as possible before I gotta play nice with Ursula and let her win… sometimes…
