Iris has always been a people watcher. She stated this to me explicitly at age two. One of her favorite people to watch is Uncle Dan. She likes to watch him draw, especially when he is drawing landscapes. Rendering a landscape in watercolor is a magical act.
Landscape:
* * *
Later, at home, Gramma watches Iris knit.
Now & again, she lends a hand.
Knitting is not one of Iris’s favorite activities, but she is much better at it than I am!
Somewhere in Eden, naked young children play amongst tall flowers growing by a river.
I couldn’t carry both enough water to get us comfortably through our longest of hikes and carry Akiva, so I bought Iris a backpack. It gives her superpowers— the most wonderful of which is the super power to enable us to carry enough water.
They all want to kiss me.
They all want to squeeze me because I am soft and cute.
But even though I’m only three, I’m already my own self. Respect me.
You think you can make yourself irresistible?
It is only I. Only I am irresistible. Don’t kiss me.
At a garage sale,
Mom bought a box of batik fabric that someone had cut into small pieces with the intent of making a quilt.
The quilt was never completed.
She bought me the fabric thinking I might use the tiny pieces to make tiny doll clothes.
I have decided that I enjoy piecing the fabric for clothing.
This skirt has 32 different fabrics.
I took Iris to the field across from the school to model it for me.
…& then strange tiredness overcame her, & she lay on the ground, immobile.
It started out in the normal way: a walk in the woods down to the river,
fully clothed.
But, with the toss of the first rock, the first splash wetted their clothing and—
Off it came! Splash!
In to the water with the rocks!
Throw to the other side!
And—
bloop!
It’s good to have a river.
While Iris & Rethabille model matching outfits—
—Akiva behaves like a wild animal.
Akiva: I have a baby goat!
Iris: My baby goat is bigger than your baby goat.
Akiva: Your goat’s too big to carry.
Iris: Is not!
Akiva: Woah.
Chloe: Did you carry this baby goat all the way over here just for me?
Iris: It’s more your size. I prefer the littler ones.
Akiva: [to himself] I like goats. But if goats had wheels, I’d like them even better.
