I love all the curvy lines in #1, great shot! Congrats on the coming of baby #2! #2 is so cute, my daughter also has those piercing dark eyes and I am sucker for high contrast B&W's of her.
My attempts actually came out pretty similar to yours, Greg:
Edit #1, (slight curves adjustment, new black layer with blending mode set to "color", dodged the highlights in her eyes, bumped the blacks a little, unsharp mask)
And then here is a slightly higher contrast version, all the same steps as above, but this time I added an overlay layer @ 25% and a soft light layer, also at 25% opacity:
Diana, member of the mama-razzi equipped with Rebel T1i | Canon 18-55mm IS | Nifty Fifty | Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 Xr Di | Canon 70-200mm f/4L IS USM | 580EX II | Flickr
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