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Jessica was also one of our 2007 finalists. While she just missed out on the main prize last year, we ended up using her on a cover later in the year. According to her mum, she loves wearing her bunny ear hairclips as seen in the picture above. Now two, she's a proud big sister to baby Luke. She's also a little chatterbox and loves to sing in the car with her musical taste ranging from Silverchair to Cold Chisel and the occasional Delta tune.

Another one of our 2007 finalists has sent us a picture. Elias looks like he's turning into a very talented little muso.

We couldn't believe it when this picture of Alexia arrived in the office. Our 2007 Baby of the Year is now a very grown up looking three-year-old. It sounds like she's also a busy girl who loves Dora the Explorer and practicising her gymnastics. According to her mum (who is a gym coach) she can already do the splits, forward rolls and handstands. Plus she likes riding around her family's property on her pee wee 50 motorbike. A little action woman in the making...

Longtime readers of Parents mag may recognise this face - it's Will from Brisbane who was one of our 2007 Baby of the Year finalists. When his proud parents Drew and Jackie saw that the competition was on again, they sent in some snapshots to show us how big Will has grown during the past year. On the cusp of two, he is now talking non-stop and obsessed with diggers, trucks and mowers. He's also looking forward to becoming a big brother in a couple of months. We're hoping to catch up with more of our former finalists and share their updated pics with you. Watch this space...

Since our competition opened just over three weeks ago we've received more than 600 online entries. The posted entries are yet to be counted but our bulging mailbag confirms there are already hundreds of those too.

We've also had more than a million clicks on our website (thank you!), which means some proud parents (and grandparents) could be nursing keyboard-weary fingers.

Three weeks in, we've also identified a few areas that need clarifying so we're in the process of adding a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to the site.  

There are six amazing prizes up for grabs. The main prize is $10,000 cash AND the chance to see your baby on our cover. So it's no surprise that the most commonly asked question so far has been, "Can I enter both online and by post?" Unfortunately, the answer is no. You can only enter once, so you'll need to decide which method is best for you.

The advantage of entering by post is that you can send in THREE pics, but your baby won’t appear on the website and they won't be eligible for the Readers’ Choice prize – that's being offered exclusively to online entrants. So if you want a chance at winning the trip for four to the Gold Coast then online is the best bet. But remember, we can only accept ONE picture for online entries

The other big question you've been asking is: “How does the online voting for the Readers’ Choice prize work?” Well, we've tried to make it as fair as we can. While your baby's score is determined by the number of votes they receive, it’s also affected by the number of online entrants.

The Parents team do not affect the results of the online voting or reset the votes – so choosing which baby wins the Readers’ Choice prize is entirely up to you (and hundreds of other proud parents).

Finally, if this blog entry or the new FAQ section still doesn't help answer your question then please email, boty@newsmagazines.com.au.

Thanks for your fantastic support and good luck. May the cutest baby win!

Three months is not only a long time in the life of a newborn human (or
their sleepless human parents for that matter).

It's a pretty intense time of rapid growth and magic moments in the animal kingdom too...

These photos of a baby panda's first three months of life come from
www.treehugger.com.

To see the rest of the series click here...

www.treehugger.com/files/2008/05/photos-panda-bear-cub-baby-growing-up.php

These little cuties were meant to be asleep in this shot. But as you can imagine things don't always go according to plan when you work with children. The shot is from the winter sleepwear story in the latest issue of Parents mag. The rest of the story is just as adorable. There's something about kids and pyjamas that makes them extra cute and this theory might need to be added to the cute formula we found below.

We're now spending our days happily sifting through Baby of the Year entries and they are still flooding in. I'm shortlisting almost every second shot, so we will have to shortlist the shortlist a couple of times when it comes time for the official judging.

If you're still yet to enter, there are some tips on taking great shots here on the website. But my big tip is it's all about the eyes. Blue or brown, it doesn't matter. But I seem to be a sucker for the babies with big eyes. And dimples and button noses and gummy smiles and curls and chubby fingers... which is why our shortlist is getting longer by the day!

Way back in the 90s there was a Seinfeld episode that questioned the theory that all babies are cute, some of you may remember the 'have you seen the baby' line. But I'm a firm believer that all babies are cute – no question.

So far the entries flooding into our Baby of the Year 2008 competition confirm this belief. They are all very cute. Super cute. And I've now stumbled on some semi-scientific evidence to support my theory that almost everything is cute in miniature. Almost.

This very funny "cute formula" has been popping up on various blogs and was apparently used by Warner Bros illustrators to maximise the cute factor in their cartoon characters. If only fat legs and bulging tummies were considered cute for grown ups too...

Feeling clucky is an everyday occupational hazard in the Parents office because we're always surrounded by super cute stuff.

But the cute quota is about to skyrocket with the arrival of the Baby of the Year entries. There's going to be lots of sitting on the floor cooing over snapshots, not a lot of other work getting done and finally the tough job of choosing finalists.

It's a hard job but we're very glad to be doing it.