Kiddo pics, could use advise on setting

[Coralguy]

I'm going to try to post pics here. I took the camera out and gave it a try, now need advice on how you would shoot this. This was in a fairly bright room, sodium lighting. I shot a couple without the flash and the lcd showed a very dark image. So these are shot with the flash. I have not messed with the photo's at all, other than resizing. They just don't seem very sharp and the lighting seems a little off. Any suggestions?

 

[Coralguy]

Oh yea, D1x with Nikon 28-100 lens, sb-28dx speedlight.

 

[Raindrops]

What kind of focussing were you using?

For the first one, I think a vertical shot would work better, with the girl looking up to where she's going.

In the second, there's a great crop opportunity (?) of the person on the mobile phone in the bottom left hand corner.