Tear-Jerker Timelapse: Watch This Baby Age, From 0 to 18

In 1999, Frans Hofmeester, a Dutch filmmaker and photographer, noticed a somewhat ordinary, unremarkable thing: Babies grow at an alarming rate. Right? It happens to all of our kids.

Wrong. Because the fact is, when you realize it, it both breaks your heart and fills you with pride day after day. How our children grow and change is actually a pretty incredible thing.

With this in mind, Hofmeester started documenting the growth of his daughter, Lotte. Starting when she was just an infant, he began taking short video clips of her against the same white baby blanket backdrop, every week. He eventually pieced together these quick little excerpts of Lotte’s life into an 18-year-long project, documenting Lotte’s progression through baby- and toddlerhood, into the school-age years and finally into adolescence. (Hofmeester did the same thing, to age 14, with his son, Vince.)

The result is a breathtaking montage of Lotte from a smiley baby to a beautiful young woman. You will no doubt see your own kids in the images. We’re not crying, you’re crying.