Hey all… it’s Tuesday, the day we snoop through Noah’s diary. Why? Because we can. And because cartoon characters can’t sue for invasion of privacy.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 11am: Woke up this morning to a list of grievances, supposedly from Mr. T-Rex, but Mr. T-Rex’s handwriting looks suspiciously like Ursula’s except in green crayon instead of pink.
Anyway, “Mr. T-Rex” is upset that none of the channels on Ursula’s TV have much in the way of dinosaur shows. And he’s concerned that Ursula’s gymnastics teacher is boring and won’t teach Ursula the skills she needs for a successful career in the circus.
He didn’t specify which skills those would be but Ursula has been wanting to watch footage of old circuses when they still had lions and tigers so I’m guessing he means lion taming… which would be an odd thing to teach in gymnastics class.
“Mr. T-Rex” is also concerned that Ursula isn’t getting enough of the 4 most important food groups—cookies, candy, donuts, and pizza—and that this might be the reason why she’s short. Personally, I think it’s a mix of genetics and Ursula insisting the only valid for of dairy for strong bones is pizza cheese, but I’m sure the stuffed dinosaur knows all about nutritional science.
Anyway, I took a photo of the note and texted it to Ruth along with a link to the kids’ classes at the local circus school. They have a “circus parkour” class that I think could work on Thursdays after archery, but the “circus starter” class would conflict with the highland dance class Agnes insists Ursula take, so that’s kinda a problem.
Only thing—aside from Agnes’ insistence on highland dance messing up the schedule—is I think the “circus” schools all basically teach stuff like twirling around in the silks and honestly I don’t think that’s what interests Ursula about the circus. It’s all Cirque du Soleil kinda stuff now… y’know, very theatre kid-y. But Ursula’s not a theatre kid and I think she’s more interested in the pyro stuff and the big cats and all that more old school circus kinda stuff.
She even asked about sideshow freaks and I told her we don’t put people in sideshows anymore, we use reality TV to gawk instead.
Really, I suspect Ursula would be cool with stuff that’s more dynamic. Her favorite part of gymnastics is the trampoline and when I’ve watched old circus footage with her, she likes acts that have a lot of jumping around and she likes some of the old clown bits, too. And when Ruth and Agnes took her to see Cirque du Soleil in Vancouver a while back, Ursula apparently complained pretty much the whole time that the show was boring and the music was dumb.
And I don’t really see any mention of tightropes or juggling or clowning or any of that sorta stuff on the circus school websites.
So she might find circus school isn’t all she hopes it might be. And if she wants to be a lion tamer, I suppose she could start with trying to teach her brother’s dogs some tricks first.
I’m thinking I might get a slackline for the backyard this summer. Just have it a foot off the ground or so and she can get her circus-y fix on that to start.
But I guess when I’m chauffeuring Ursula from school to her Creative Kids class today I can ask her what skills “Mr. T-Rex” thinks she’s gonna need to master for that future in the circus.
