Early Photography Success

I have always loved photography, but for the longest time, it was just point, shoot and hope to get lucky. It wasn't until after my sister's wedding, two and a half years ago, that I started to think about deliberately doing things to make photos more interesting.
My sister's wedding photographer was awesome. There were so many fantastic shots that I wanted to get married all over again and have her photographer take my photos. My husband isn't on board, even though I do want to marry him again.
Anyway, my point is that while we were getting ready, the photographer took pictures of Keebles, my daughter, sitting on the floor, admiring her flower girl shoes. In the first one, the focus fell on her fancy shoes, and her awesome hair was slightly out of focus. In the second one, the focus was on her hair, and the fancy shoes were slightly out of focus.
Holy cats, it was an epiphany! You can do that? Choose for one thing to be in focus while the other one is not? Why did I not know this before?
Fast forward to this: my first attempt with blurring my background. Yes, I wanted Keebles to be out-of-focus. I thought it showed what she might just look like to that cicada.
On a side note, the last time I had Keebles get real close to a big bug like this ended in disaster. We were at my grandma's farm (like we are in this photo) and there was a HUGE praying mantis on the side of my grandma's house. Keebles didn't want to get close to it, but me, being the good mom that I am, encouraged her to. And the giant praying mantis jumped on her face. Screaming and tears ensued. So, I am grateful that she was willing to get this close to the cicada.