1. You can’t contain your excitement at hearing your brand-new relative has entered the world.
There's a brand-new human in the world – AND WE'RE RELATED!!!!
2. You immediately start referring to yourself as “Aunt Taylor”, or “Uncle Alex”. Even when you're not around the kid.
Uhh, it's AUNT Ellen actually.
3. Your lockscreen is now permanently occupied by pictures of them.
4. And you show the hundreds of baby pictures on your phone to literally anybody you come across.
5. You see pictures of other babies and secretly think to yourself, “My niece/nephew is so much cuter than that.”
No baby is cuter than my baby, thankyouverymuch.
6. People actually start to think the baby you always talk about might be yours, because you're so obsessed.
7. As soon as you see the baby, you're like, "Can I hold them? Like, right now? PLEASE?"
Hi, sister, nice to see you. NOW HAND OVER THE DAMN BABY!
8. But when they inevitably start crying, you feel so guilty for upsetting them.
9. When you see bad or sad news, you want to protect their innocence forever.
10. You spend hours making gifts that are actually kind of ugly but FILLED WITH LOVE.
They'll love this scratchy vest because I made it, right?!
11. You visit the baby as much as you can. Even if you live in different cities.
12. Every time you see baby clothes in a store, you say, “Wouldn’t this look cute on [niece/nephew]?!?!”
Yes, it would. Because EVERYTHING looks cute on them.
13. In fact, you say this every time you see something small.
14. You dream about when they are a toddler who can walk...
15. …and a 6-year-old you can play with…
16. …and an angsty teenager who can turn to you as "the cool aunt".
I'm down with the kids! You can talk to me!
17. You decide you actually really want a baby. You're ready. You KNOW what it's like.
18. You don't.
You just want to spend as much time with them as possible.
19. But after getting to know your beautiful niece or nephew, you know what true love is.
