It started 11 years ago with a shirt.
Now it’s an annual tradition, a viral hit and a statement on time and parenting.
New Jersey dad Nick Tomasso was the one with the shirt — emblazoned with the familiar yellow-and-black bat logo like the one seen in the 1989 film “Batman.”
Then came his baby son Jackson’s onesie to match.
For the first two years, he didn’t pick up on the trend.
“I really didn’t realize that became a theme until year three,” Tomasso tells NJ Advance Media.
But looking over his camera roll, he noticed a common thread in pictures he took with his son Jackson.
They matched — over and over and over again.
“I realized I had created a tradition without even knowing it,” says Tomasso, who lives in Bergen County and works in corporate finance.
In the first photo, baby Jackson sat in his lap wearing the Batman onesie next to his Batman shirt. In the next photo, Jackson was a toddler wearing a short-sleeve Batman shirt. Ditto for a long-sleeve shirt the next year.
“Year one, I just happened to be wearing a Batman shirt,” Tomasso says. “I like sci-fi, I like superhero stuff.”
Like anyone else snapping photos of their kids, he thought the matching onesie would “make a cute picture,” he says.
Nick Tomasso’s Batman photos with his son Jackson, from year four (top left) to year 11 (bottom right). Courtesy of Nick Tomasso
“A year later it was around the holidays. I got a new Batman shirt, just a different color, and he obviously got a different one because he was bigger.”
Tomasso decided to pose the same way with his son in his lap every year in the same chair, both of them wearing Batman shirts.
And so it has continued since 2014.
“In the later years, it’ll be funny when he’s much bigger than I am,” he says.
Jackson, now 11 and in sixth grade, duly put on a Batman shirt this year and posed for the latest photo with Tomasso, whose series has also showed the progression of his own graying hair.
“I usually did it around the fall or the winter,” Tomasso says. “No set day, just kind of when it popped into my mind … But over the past few years, I tried to do it on Batman Day which is in September and that’s when I did it this year.”
For years, he shared the Batman photo tradition with family and friends on his private Facebook and Instagram pages.
This year, he decided to share the photo progression on Reddit.
Nick and Jackson in a non-Batman moment. “Show up for your kids and be there and spend time with them because that’s really what matters,” Nick says.Courtesy of Nick Tomasso
After Tomasso shared the 11 photos showing his son’s growth from baby to middle schooler on the “Made Me Smile” subreddit, the family tradition drew significantly more attention.
His post has not only been upvoted 10,000 times, it’s also had him fielding calls from national media outlets.
“It was a complete surprise,” Tomasso says. “I’m on Reddit a lot … I guess after this amount of time — I spent 11 years working on this thing now — I was just kind of proud of it, so I just wanted to put it out there.”
“It’s our 15 minutes of fame, I guess,” he says.
“I was apprehensive at first, but once it was out there, it was out there and I might as well just embrace it.”
When Jackson was younger, he wasn’t that interested in taking the annual photos.
“Over the past few years, he has really appreciated seeing it, especially as he could see how small he was versus how much bigger he’s getting each year,” Tomasso says.
Michael Keaton as Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.”Warner Bros.
And yes, father and son have watched Batman movies together, including the 1989 Tim Burton “Batman“ starring Michael Keaton in a tangle with Jack Nicholson’s Joker.
“We haven’t gotten to all of them,” Tomasso says. “He’s on a bit of a ‘Star Wars’ kick right now, so we’re trying to go through ‘Star Wars’ and some Marvel superhero movies.”
Many other people and families have gone viral on social media for posts illustrating the progression of time and the growth of children. There’s also a trend that sees adults recreate photos from their childhood alongside their families.
Tomasso says he wasn’t looking to replicate or reference them, but he’s glad for the initially unplanned tradition.
“Barring everything unforeseen, I would consider us doing it for as long as we can,” Nick Tomasso says of the Batman photo tradition.Courtesy of Nick Tomasso
“I think especially because it’s the same picture … it’s more meaningful that way,” he says. “I mean, you can look at pictures of your kids when they were infants or toddlers or 10 or 12 years old, and you can see how big they’ve gotten, but especially sitting exactly in the same type of shirt and pose, you could really see how fast time goes … especially when you have kids.
“So just make the most of that time, the big moments and the small, whether it’s just playing with your kid or it’s going on a cool vacation. Whatever that may be, show up for your kids and be there and spend time with them because that’s really what matters.”
Will they still be committed to the yearly Batman photo when Jackson is 44 (the age Tomasso is now) and Nick is 77?
“Barring everything unforeseen, I would consider us doing it for as long as we can,” he says.
But Tomasso says he’s a realist — Jackson may well be living on the other side of the country by then.
“If he moves or whatever life changes or life gives him or me, for that matter — we’ll just keep it going as long as we can.“
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