Gotcha Day 2010

It's been seven years since we made the trip to New York City to pick up 4-month-old Thomas at JFK and bring him home. We lovingly refer to each August 19th as "Gotcha Day."

Flash forward to 2010...Thomas and Nolan are much bigger and about to enter into 2nd and 5th grades. They are brothers through-and-through.  Best friends -- except for the times when they want to kill each other, as siblings are also prone to want to do now and then!

I try to snap a photo of the boys every Gotcha day.  Here's this year's before and after...

Gotcha Day 2007

Today we celebrated Gotcha Day -- the fourth anniversary of when we got Thomas.

It was a low-key event this year. We just hung out around the house today playing in the backyard. But tonight we splurged and went out to dinner.

Here are the annual then-and-now photos...

Gotcha Day 2006

We celebrated Gotcha Day on Saturday. Aug. 19 marked the third anniversary of the day we picked Thomas up at the airport and brought him home.

The crazy thing about Gotcha Day this year is that Thomas is now the same age Nolan was three years ago.

We commemorated the occasion by taking the boys and my mom to Hoffman’s Playland. As you might imagine Thomas was most excited about riding on their miniature train.

Unfortunately, we had to dodge the raindrops. We thought it wasn’t supposed to start raining until later in the day, but just as we were walking out the door the sprinkles started falling. For a while they weren’t running all of the rides at Hoffman’s because of the rain (including the train), but eventually the rain let up and all of the rides started.

To top the day off we ordered a pizza for dinner and ate it at mom’s house.

One of the things I like to do on Gotcha Day is take a picture of the boys together so we can compare the then and now. But since it was raining I left the camera in the car, and then I kept forgetting to take a picture later on. So here I’m using another recent picture of Nolan and Thomas.

A Day Out with Thomas

We had a choo-chooriffic day today. To mark Gotcha Day 2005 (which was actually Friday) we took the kids (and my mom) to “A Day Out with Thomas.”

The event was held at the Delaware & Ulster Rail Road in Arkville, N.Y., which is in the Catskills.

It took us about 2.5 hours to get there. We printed out directions from Mapquest, which were a little misleading in one spot. That resulted in me taking a wrong turn and going about 25 miles in the opposite direction before we realized we were off track. When we bought our “Day Out with Thomas” tickets we were advised to show up an hour early. Instead we go there 15 minutes early.

But it all worked out. We went straight to the train – which looked just like Thomas the Tank Engine – and climbed aboard. We sat in an old fashioned coach and took a train ride that lasted about 25 minutes.

Afterward we got out and went to take a good close-up look at the Thomas the train. Thomas the boy and his big brother Nolan were blown away to see this character in “real life!”

There were plenty of other things to do there too. There was an area where kids could sit and watch Thomas videos. There was a tent where performers were telling stories and singing songs. A tent called “the Imagination Station” had bunch of tables set up with Thomas toys for kids to play with and arts & crafts projects to do. There were also animals, a hay maze and – of course – a giant souvenir shop. We didn’t escape with buying some new Thomas toys.

The Delaware & Ulster Rail Road also has plenty of its own vintage engines and rail cars to check out.

Sir Topham Hatt (a human character from the Thomas stories for those of you without young children) was also there. Nolan says he saw him from a distance. I missed him and we never got a chance to go see him up close.

They were serving food, but there was no place to sit that wasn’t out in the open, and the skies were starting to look threatening by lunchtime. So we decided to leave and the rain began falling just as we started heading for our car.

We found a nice little diner in town to have lunch in and then headed home.

When we got back, Thomas went down for a nap and Nolan and I went to the library to pick out a new Thomas video. The kids are happily watching their show in the basement right now.

Gotcha Day 2005!

Today is Gotcha Day for the Rooney family -- the second anniversary of the day we got Thomas.

On Aug. 19, 2003 we drove down to New York City to meet this adorable 4-month-old little boy from Korea, who we had heard so much about and had been waiting so long to meet.

Pictured are Thomas and his big brother Nolan then and now.

It's been a great two years. Thomas is now a very happy 2-year-old. He loves choo-choos and music. Play a song, any song, and he'll smile and dance and sing along.

Like any 2-year-old, he is very inquisitive -- always asking "Why?" and looking for trouble to get into.

But Gotcha Day isn't just about Thomas. It's a special day for all of us, since this is the day our family became complete. And we have big plans to celebrate this weekend.


Both of the kids enjoy "Thomas the Tank Engine." Thomas really loves his namesake. He'll spend all sorts of time playing with his and Nolan's toy trains on their wooden track in the basement.

So Sunday we'll be taking them to "A Day Out with Thomas," where we have tickets for a ride on a train made up to look just like Thomas the Tank Engine! The event is at the Delaware & Ulster Railroad, which is almost two hours away. But it should be worth it just to see the look on his face when he sees that train!

Gotcha Day

That was then...


Today is a big day for the Rooney family. It was one year ago today – Aug. 19, 2003 – that Thomas came to our family. In fact, as I type this, it was almost one year ago to the minute that we laid eyes on him for the very first time.

We picked him up at JFK in New York City that day. My sister Annie drove Kris, Nolan and I down along with my mom and Annie’s son Louis. I remember we got the airport about 20-30 minutes before his flight from South Korea was due to land (2:50 p.m. if memory serves). Of course, in this day and age we weren’t allowed to be waiting there for him at the gate. After passing through customs he finally came out around 4 p.m. We didn’t spend too much time at the airport after that. We rushed out of there, hoping to avoid rush hour traffic out of the city.

And just like that, all of a sudden, we had a new baby!

He was about four-months-old then. And look at him now! He just recently started walking. He loves his big brother and his dog. He has his cranky moments, but it is also very easy to get a laugh out of him. The weird, spiky baby hair he had at first is gone, and he’s already been to the barber twice. He’s currently working on teeth #9 and 10 and he’ll eat just about anything you put in front of him.

He loves to laugh. He loves to dance and play. He’s a great little boy well on his way to toddlerhood. And we’re all the better for having him in our family. I can’t wait to see how many more changes the coming year brings.

Happy Gotcha Day, Thomas!


This is now!

Incidentally...we're celebrating tonight with dinner at Garcia's. MMmmm...Mexican food...