Picture this: It’s 11:55 pm on New Year’s Eve and I’m glued to my phone.

My life is about to change in an amazing way.

I’m going to be an uncle for the first time.

I told my friends that if my sister gave birth to the first baby of the new year, I’d buy rounds for the rest of the night. Knowing the company I kept, that could have been a dangerous proposition — but I couldn’t contain my excitement.

Eventually I got word that Jack entered the world at 1:16 a.m. ET on New Year’s Day. That’s 12:16 a.m. local time in New Orleans, in case you don’t know.

Astronauts could have probably seen my smile from space.

Jack turned out to be the first BOY born that day, but a girl earned the distinction of being the First Baby of 2016. I still bought a round to celebrate.

Fast forward nearly five months and the groundwork was laid for me to finally meet him in person. FaceTime — or any video messaging — is an incredible invention, yet real face time with those you love can’t be beat.

Here’s the thing: I wanted it to be a surprise for my sister.

Every time I talked to my sister on the phone, she told me how she couldn’t wait for me to meet Jack. Based on my schedule, she knew it would be tough for me to find free time outside of Christmas, but held on hope that I could visit beforehand.

That time came this past weekend and I can’t put into words how great it was.

My sister crumpled to her knees upon seeing me sitting the dining room and sobbed out, “Tyler! I can’t believe you’re home.”

Part of me wanted to record her reaction — probably the millennial in me. Check that, definitely the millennial in me. Then I remembered how Lupe Fiasco lambasted someone at the concert I went to about recording the show and ruining the now for the future. Sure, you can see the moment over and over again, but you lose the true feeling of remembering it as it was.

So I let nature take its course and it was something I’ll never forget.

I spent as much time as I could over Memorial Day Weekend with my nephew and the rest of my family, for that matter. Those times are few and far between.

I’ll cherish them more and more from now on.