2/365 Inauguration of the self timer

I'm kinda excited about today's photo.  I have been trying to get a photo of baby A's little hands while we are reading because he likes to help "hold" the book, but I had to figure out how to get the shot.  So, I used the self-timer for the first time.  It also gave me a chance to work out a few things I haven't thought about before. I set it for 10 sec. and continuous shoot so it takes 2 pics each time.  The camera was on a shelf in baby A's closet on a little table-top tripod.  I don't have a regular tripod yet.  Setting the camera up in the closet posed a few challenges, but was possible since my T3i has a variable angle LCD.  I am glad now I went with the T3i, even though there have been moments I wondered if I should have done the T3 and a non-kit zoom lens. Instead I kept the T3i, 2 kit zooms, and purchased a 50 mm 1.8 separately. It's serving me well, so far.

My next challenge was focusing.  I generally use back button focus since I mostly take photos of my kiddos and have from the "get-go" taken photos this way, after reading a tutorial on it.  Plus, I am not very steady and found it hard to focus and recompose.  I couldn't figure out how to focus in "live view" from the LCD without turning off back button focusing, which I felt too lazy to do.  First I tried to focus on something I thought would be in the same focal plane once the camera was in place.  This was a pain and didn't work very well.  Then I finally wised up and manually focused..duh! Problem solved.

On another note, I did convert this to black and white.  I have been trying to resist this since: 1) I love black and white and sometimes am tempted to convert everything, 2) I get tempted to think black and white will fix my photo issues...but I know this is not really true or ideal, and 3) I do not yet know how to do a true conversion other than just the "one step click" to convert to b&w.

But, I did convert ("one step") on this one because I thought it accentuated the light shining on baby A's face, helped the strange mix of colors in the photo, seemed to work well with the stripes on baby A's outfit and the other geometric details in the photo, and I felt it gave the photo a more intimate and timeless feeling.
I posted the color sooc below it.  Black and white or color, what do you think?  Would you have left it in color?

f2.5

1/125sec

ISO1600