Then came his baby son Jackson\u2019s onesie to match.<\/p>\n
For the first two years, he didn\u2019t pick up on the trend. <\/p>\n
\u201cI really didn\u2019t realize that became a theme until year three,\u201d Tomasso tells NJ Advance Media.<\/p>\n
But looking over his camera roll, he noticed a common thread in pictures he took with his son Jackson.<\/p>\n
They matched \u2014 over and over and over again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI realized I had created a tradition without even knowing it,\u201d says Tomasso, who lives in Bergen County and works in corporate finance. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cYear one, I just happened to be wearing a Batman shirt,\u201d Tomasso says. \u201cI like sci-fi, I like superhero stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like anyone else snapping photos of their kids, he thought the matching onesie would \u201cmake a cute picture,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
![\"Btmanviral\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/OF36KNO2LVCQNE3M4L4LAHGOTM.jpg\"\/)
Nick Tomasso’s Batman photos with his son Jackson, from year four (top left) to year 11 (bottom right). Courtesy of Nick Tomasso<\/p>\n
\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
And so it has continued since 2014. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn the later years, it\u2019ll be funny when he\u2019s much bigger than I am,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
\u201cI usually did it around the fall or the winter,\u201d Tomasso says. \u201cNo 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<\/a> which is in September and that\u2019s when I did it this year.\u201d<\/p>\n For years, he shared the Batman photo tradition with family and friends on his private Facebook and Instagram pages. <\/p>\n This year, he decided to share the photo progression on Reddit<\/a>. <\/p>\n After Tomasso shared the 11 photos showing his son\u2019s growth from baby to middle schooler on the \u201cMade Me Smile\u201d subreddit<\/a>, the family tradition drew significantly more attention. <\/p>\n His post has not only been upvoted 10,000 times, it\u2019s also had him fielding calls from national media outlets.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a complete surprise,\u201d Tomasso says. \u201cI\u2019m on Reddit a lot … I guess after this amount of time \u2014 I spent 11 years working on this thing now \u2014 I was just kind of proud of it, so I just wanted to put it out there.”<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s our 15 minutes of fame, I guess,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n \u201cI was apprehensive at first, but once it was out there, it was out there and I might as well just embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n When Jackson was younger, he wasn\u2019t that interested in taking the annual photos. <\/p>\n \u201cOver the past few years, he has really appreciated seeing it, especially as he could see how small he was versus how much bigger he\u2019s getting each year,\u201d Tomasso says.<\/p>\n And yes, father and son have watched Batman movies together, including the 1989 Tim Burton \u201cBatman<\/a>\u201c starring Michael Keaton<\/a> in a tangle with Jack Nicholson<\/a>\u2019s Joker<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe haven\u2019t gotten to all of them,\u201d Tomasso says. \u201cHe\u2019s on a bit of a \u2018Star Wars\u2019 kick right now, so we\u2019re trying to go through \u2018Star Wars\u2019 and some Marvel superhero movies.\u201d<\/p>\n Many other people and families have gone viral on social media for posts illustrating the progression of time and the growth of children. There\u2019s also a trend that sees adults recreate photos from their childhood alongside their families. <\/p>\n Tomasso says he wasn\u2019t looking to replicate or reference them, but he\u2019s glad for the initially unplanned tradition. <\/p>\n \u201cI think especially because it\u2019s the same picture … it\u2019s more meaningful that way,\u201d he says. \u201cI 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\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n \u201cSo just make the most of that time, the big moments and the small, whether it\u2019s just playing with your kid or it\u2019s going on a cool vacation. Whatever that may be, show up for your kids and be there and spend time with them because that\u2019s really what matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Will they still be committed to the yearly Batman photo when Jackson is 44 (the age Tomasso is now) and Nick is 77?<\/p>\n \u201cBarring everything unforeseen, I would consider us doing it for as long as we can,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n But Tomasso says he\u2019s a realist \u2014 Jackson may well be living on the other side of the country by then.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he moves or whatever life changes or life gives him or me, for that matter \u2014 we\u2019ll just keep it going as long as we can.\u201c <\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It started 11 years ago with a shirt. Now it\u2019s an annual tradition, a viral hit and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-215690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Btmanviral\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/NHEHEX6G3FGF7PK73I7UTKDTQY.jpg\"\/)
Nick and Jackson in a non-Batman moment. “Show up for your kids and be there and spend time with them because that\u2019s really what matters,” Nick says.Courtesy of Nick Tomasso<\/p>\n![\"Bman\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ZC46PRKJYFGWBCX5KOZR7UQ3AA.jpg\"\/)
Michael Keaton as Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.”Warner Bros.<\/p>\n![\"Btmanviral\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/N4QUY4GY5ZEZLCUL2AXSOKOYN4.jpg\"\/)
\u201cBarring everything unforeseen, I would consider us doing it for as long as we can,\u201d Nick Tomasso says of the Batman photo tradition.Courtesy of Nick Tomasso<\/p>\n