Bill, Probably what I'm seeing in the pixelated image is the change you made in order to post it on here. Since you were shooting with a D700 and a 35mm lens, and you didn't do much cropping, that has to be what I'm seeing The dimensions of the image on the web are 1024 x 683 at 72ppi. Even though, as you say, you converted the vertical into a horizontal, if my arithmetic's right, and if you didn't change the width of the converted image, you must have ended up with around a 6 megapixel result. That's plenty.
But that doesn't change the situation as far as perspective is concerned. On the other hand, I agree with John: it's a very good image. Good-looking kid too. I should know. I have four of those.