Disclaimer:  this is a personal post, so if you’re not interested, avert your eyes! Haha! Anyone who has worked with us and/or follows us on Instagram should know my sweet daughter/DCPG mascot, Meems.  About 90% of the DCPG instagram is either her insanely detailed drawings or cute outfits.

We bought Meems a fancy dress for no reason and she’s probably growing out of it as we speak, so we did an impromptu portrait session at the Pagoda.  I didn’t get to do her 9th birthday portraits back in February, so I was glad to finally get a free moment to take some “official” photos of her! We kept it simple; natural light, barely any editing and no makeup or fancy hair.   We were really pushing it that day time-wise, so by the time we got to the Pagoda it was cold and we literally had 15 minutes of usable daylight.  Everything worked out; the soft sunset light was perfect, she was a trooper about the weather and she magically did not argue once about posing or location.

Taking a cue from my friend at http://mamamccuan.tumblr.com, here is Mia at age 9:

LIKES

• Drawing
• Drawing
• Drawing
• Did I mention drawing?
• Doing things by herself (even if it means running away from Mama at stores)
• Manga, anime and collector toys esp. from Madoka Magica, Yotsuba
• Mark Crilley tutorials
• Blazers, skirts and skinny jeans
• Kali at IMPACT Martial Arts
• Her new iPod
• Japanese culture
• Fancy dinners

DISLIKES

• Being told to take a shower
• Meat that’s too chewy
• Clothes w/ baby-ish designs or text graphics
• When adults talk about her in front of her
• Onions
• Singing in front of anyone
• When Mendell asks her too many questions while she’s trying to sleep
• Wearing socks
• Soda (thank God)

What’s new at age 9?

She was accepted into Old Donation Center’s visual arts program, which was a no-brainer.  We’re letting her do more things on her own, simple things like making her own breakfast, riding the elevator at the Creative Space w/o us or being home alone for short periods of time.  The baby steps toward independence are mostly for the sake of Mendell and I because we’re so used to hovering around our only child, haha.  She’s very entrepreneurial minded; I’ve stopped her many times from attempting to sell her drawings to people at parties and suggestions she’s made to me about DCPG or business ideas in general are surprisingly practical. Sometimes talking to her is like talking to an adult; her tendency toward introversion makes her really thoughtful and insightful for a 9 year old.  Even if the end result is her not getting what she wants, she is always open to listening to reasoning and for the most part understands, even if she doesn’t necessarily agree.  She is shy to strangers, but outgoing to people she knows/loves.  She’s a pro at ordering her own food at restaurants.  She is still working on doing cash transactions at stores by herself, but loves doing it. She has Mendell’s inherent and effortless kindness, which draws people to her.  Babies love her! We also noticed a funny trend where shop owners/restaurants will give her free cookies for no reason at all.   She was an orange belt in Muay Thai, and a yellow belt in Kali (Filipino Martial Arts) but discovered this year that she wants to focus only on Kali.  She craves independence but still likes to snuggle with us at night before bed.   She still sleeps w/ her favorite bear from when she was a baby.  These years of her still being a little girl are fading fast so we’re trying to hold on and savor this time before the tween years hit! Being the self-aware person she is, she says, “I hope I stay sweet, even when I’m a teenager.” Me too, Meems.

All in all, she is a lovely little person

My favorite people in the whole wide world.  I love them so much!!

These two are like living anime characters, haha.

I hope to make portraits an annual thing for her and her cousins; it’s nice to shoot for yourself and your family every now and then!

- Cies

• Dress, shoes, flower pin | Target
• Moto jacket | Dillards
• Photography | Ciesther dela Cruz