Chronicle baby contest a winner

EVERYBODY loves a baby ? even the guys at Perth Concrete Ltd.
They scanned the photos in the Chronicle's baby competition, and an informant said talk about which baby should win was "the conversation of the day".
Meanwhile, voting coupons arrived in the Chronicle office by their thousands.
The competition was the idea of Chronicle marketing and promotions manager Fiona Sellers, and she said she had been thinking about nothing but babies for the past two months.
She didn't realise the response would be so huge, and said people without babies in the competition rang her just to see when the next batch of pictures would appear.
She had only had one complaint, and very few parents even asked about the prizes.
"I've had phone calls every day for the last two weeks, asking when the results will be announced."
She started having nightmares about "random babies" and saying, in her dreams, "Who does this baby belong to? Take it away."
The 366 parents who entered the competition paid $5 each to photographer Ian Jones, for a picture of their babies to appear in the Chronicle.
Mr Jones said photographing 366 babies was a challenge. They had to be relaxed before he could get a good shot. For one of them, this took three visits. On the third day the child relaxed and he got the smile he was waiting for.
He also enjoyed the responses of their parents.
"Most of them that came in were obviously of a lower income bracket and probably never had a chance to have a nice photo taken of their kid."
Three babies were winners, and 50 consolation prizes were drawn at random from all the entrants and voters. A list of these will be published tomorrow.
The mother of the overall winner, Tracey Lower, got a digital camera. Each of the winning babies got toys and a portrait sitting as well.
Parents voted for their own babies, and relatives and friends voted for them as well.
One woman rang to ask where the Chronicle was sold in Palmerston North, so she could buy up every copy and vote for her little niece.
But there were also people who made their choices based only on the photographs in the paper.
Ms Sellers said the competition got people interested and involved, and also boosted newspapers sales.
The winners --
Overall ? Jake Bristol, 15 months. Mum Tracy Lower said she entered him just for a bit of fun. But after a while, strangers were recognising Jake in the street. "He has a face you remember." Her boy came from a big family, and votes had come in from friends and relations too. Still, she was surprised to hear he had won, because she had forgotten about the competition.
Nought to one-year-old winner ? Kiera-Lee Collins, seven months. Her mother, Kataraina Allan, said she entered her baby in order to get the photograph done but the competition had been "a bit of a buzz". It had taken some time and energy, but was worth it in the end. Kiera-Lee was voted for by many friends and family, but Miss Allan was still surprised her baby won, and also "pretty stoked".
One to three-year-old winner ? Tane Brown, two. Tane's mother, Verity Brown, said she entered him because he was the beautifullest baby. She found it exciting saving all the coupons and filling them out. "I must've filled out about 100." She thanked organiser Fiona Sellers "for breaking the fantastic news to me, not once but twice" ? because she was also the winner of the Chronicle's trip to the Gold Coast.