I Love This Photo

My heart's in pieces over this photo. I think it's her hair, all fluffy. And her eyes, all almond-shaped. And her lips, all smooshed out. I just love this girl.

So anywho. Certain thoughts plague me day and night, like a maniacal hamster on the exercise wheel of my brain. For instance:

• What color should I paint my bedroom?
• Do I need a triple stroller?
• Will Jillian ever find out that Wes is not "there for the right reasons"?
• Will it hurt if I get sucked up into a black hole? And more importantly, if I unwittingly cross over a black hole's event horizon, but my friend a few inches away does not, will she be able to pull me back out? Or since her hand crosses the horizon to grab on to me, will we both be doomed to move inexorably closer and closer to the singularity?

It's quite exhausting being me. The question that's my hamster today is this: Was I too heavy-handed while editing this photo?I just got Photoshop Elements. I'm excited. I'm neurotic. That's a dangerous combination that could lead to over-edited photos. And I would hate to over-edit my babies. Because, obviously, they're perfect as is. Here's the original photo. Then I cropped it. Then I did this. I know. You're thinking "she blurred her son? And she calls herself a mother?!" I feel awful for it-I do! But this photo was just screaming Dee. I'll be blogging Bexie's photo in the next day or two, and his has no blurred siblings in the background, promise. (But if anyone knows how to cut a huge white refrigerator out of the picture, do tell). I like it. I like it a lot. But there's something so sweet about the original photo that's missing in the finished one (a well-defined Bex, perhaps?). I did a layer of hard light. And I think that's what washes out all the definition of the bridge of her nose as it becomes her cheek. Also, should I have put Dee's head in the center of the photo if I'm just going to blur Bex and make Dee the focus of the photo? Did I make her skin tone too yellow or is it just pleasantly warm? Anyone know how I could make her little orange nose more like the rest of her skin tone? Not that a little orange nose isn't just the sweetest thing ever. Because it is. But just in case, does anyone know?