Lovely texture, great eyes and connection. Like Ilya I'm also a bit torn regarding the background. Perhaps if you worked with the background farther separated from the subject it would work better.
Yes, the eyes are lovely. But I am more drawn to the casual pose and those freckles. I did not notice the background until ilya and Thomas pointed it out.
Thanks all, yeah the background sucks but I didn't have much more to work with. There was full sun everywhere else and this was the only shade we could find there.