My niece is about 18 months old. She is a huge mama's girl and for most of her life, she wouldn't let anybody else hold her. I live 2 hours away so I only see her on weekends. The last 6 months or so, she has warmed up to my brother (her dad) and my mom. She still would flip out if I tried to pick her up, but she would tolerate me playing with her.

Today, she walked right up to me, held her arms up, and yelled "up!". I teared up a little but picked her up. She pointed to the other side of the room and said "that". I'm trying to ask "that, what?". My sister-in-law said "oh yeah, she's been doing that and I have no idea what she's talking about". I walked her closer to where she was pointing as she continued saying "that". I finally got closer to our speaker up on top of the cabinet and I pointed at it and asked her "that?". She nodded and said "that!". I remembered that my brother had been playing music a lot recently, and I guess my niece really liked it. So we were able to turn on some Christmas music and dance around while she clapped and laughed.

So I'm very happy to say I'm now the fun aunt.

Representative image. Not the actual individuals involved.