Jenna Bush Hager’s eldest daughter, Mila, received a one-of-a-kind gift from her “Jefe” for her 12th birthday.
Her grandfather, former President George W. Bush — whom his grandkids lovingly call “Jefe,” which means “boss” in Spanish — gifted Mila a portrait of her cat Maisie.
“A gift from jefe! She loves!” Jenna captioned a photo in her Instagram stories over the weekend of her daughter holding up the piece of custom artwork.
Bush “loves to paint pets,” Jenna said when she and her sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, gave a talk at the Wyckoff Family YMCA in Wyckoff, New Jersey, last month.
She said her kids “request work” from her dad all the time, including once when Mila asked for a portrait of one of their family’s cats, Mango, for her little sister.
“A painting will show up and I’m like, ‘When did ‘Jefe’ paint Mango?’ And Mila’s like, ‘Oh, I requested that he do that for Poppy.’”
In addition to Mila, Jenna and her husband, Henry Hager, share two other children: Poppy, 9, and Henry “Hal” Hager, 5.
Jenna also celebrated Mila’s birthday on Instagram with a heartfelt post.
“Twelve years of our darling girl–Mila we LOVE all of who you are: all heart, spirit and humor,” the proud mom wrote. “You burrata, cat-loving, Grey’s Anatomy queen! We love you so!”
Mila’s grandma, former first lady Laura Bush, shared her own birthday wishes in the comments.
“Wish we (were) with you on your birthday! So much love,” she wrote.
Former President Bush took up painting after leaving office in 2009. He studied with private instructors and has exhibited multiple collections of his artwork, including “Out of Many, One,” which honors American immigrants, and “Portraits of Courage,” which pays tribute to military veterans.
“After the presidency I thought, ‘What am I going to do?'” Bush told the NBC station in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2017. “The painting came along and it’s opened up whole new vistas for me — a whole new way of thinking, a whole new study pattern.”
During their talk at the YMCA, Barbara and Jenna said their dad started out drawing stick figures, but advanced quickly.
“Our parents now are just living very different lives than we ever would have thought,” Barbara said. “Our dad as an artist, we didn’t see that coming.”
