<human>: I've been with my guy for almost two and a half years. Our relationship is great, we communicate well, and we've worked through various things. My issue is not with him, but his family.

Don't get me wrong, I get along with his family and we sometimes have great conversations. His dad and I have a lot in common and talk easily most of the time. His brother is closer to my age and a nerd like us, so he's also easy to speak to. I want to figure out how to talk to his mom, SIL and her daughter.

I have very little in common with them so conversation is always a bit hard. I can't get past the awkward stuff to actually talk to any of them. We've had a few great talks, but I can count those on one hand. I don't know how to connect with them or bring up casual conversation. 

A good amount of this is on me. I'm not great with conversation in general and I sometimes miss social queues only to realize i missed them after the conversation. It's easy to talk with people that share my interests. When they don't my mind goes blank. How do I connect with them when we don't have major common interests? How do I start "small talk"?

Also the SILs daughter is about 5 or 6. I don't do well with kids. How do I connect and talk to a kid? We've chatted very little over the time I've known her (she's been in the states for a year and a half and isn't often at my guy's place) so I know mostly what my guy's brother tells me. How do I start a conversation with her? 

Just to check, is this a common concern? I want a great relationship with his family as well as him. We don't have a bad one, but I'd like it to be easier to talk with some of them. I want to be with my guy for a long time. I want to be a part of his family. How can I talk to them?

Can you summarize the given text in a few sentences?
<bot>: How do I connect and talk with his family members that I have little in common with? How do I talk to his niece?