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It's totally your lens. You need a lower f-stop to get better dof (depth of field) and thus bokeh. Are you shooting mostly indoors or out? The 35 1.8 would definitely give you better bokeh, and would also shoot in lower light situations than your current lens, but what would work best for you depends quite a bit on when/how you would be shooting. I'm assuming that this is for personal use? That makes a difference because then since it's your own child and you can get as close as you want without them being nervous you can afford to have a lower mm lens.

If you'll be doing mostly inside I think the 35 would be a good choice for you. If you want a "portrait" style shot (say of just the face) you're going to have to get in pretty close, and you might even need to do a little cropping. Inside/outside doesn't really matter, except outside you have more room to maneuver (usually) and so you can go for a larger mm lens and still get lifestyle or full body shots. Am I making sense?

That's a cropped sensor camera, right? Then yeah, I'd go with the 35mm, as opposed to a 50mm. You'll be amazed at the bokeh a good prime lens can give you!

Agreed on the prime lens. I have the 50mm 1.8 and I love it. Great bokeh!

@Jetsa: Yes, it's the lens I use 99% of the time on my Nikon D90. I don't consider myself a pro at photography but an avid hobbyist. In terms of tips, the higher the f-stop (aperture setting) the more in focus the whole photo will be (f22). To get the bokeh, and focus on just a smaller area, you want a low f-stop which 1.8 would be the lowest. With a 1.8 or slightly higher number, you'll keep the focus on your subject and blur out any distracting background (which is useful if you haven't had time to tidy your house). This lens also lets you shoot in much lower light than say the kit lens the OP wrote about above and will still retain it's sharpness. I also prefer natural light and will try to position my LO by a window or some other natural light source. You want to get those flecks of light in your LO's eyes to make them look lively. Oh, and shoot a lot, just keep shooting. Now with digital we can just erase the bad ones! I pinned a lot of tutorials (I've been meaning to read) on my Pinterest that you may find helpful too: http://pinterest.com/photobookgirl/photography-tips/ and I have a post about my camera gear here: http://www.photobookgirl.com/blog/photo-book-tools-my-digital-camera-gear-computer-lineup/ Hope that helps!