Miles to go before I sleep

At dinner last night, I realized I hadn't taken any photos for my picture a day project so I thought I'd try some more experimenting with manual mode and my Speedlite. Soooo very far to go in learning manual mode. That's okay though. I'm going to keep trying. With the Speedlite, I was bouncing the light off the ceiling in the first one. I'm not happy with the dark eye sockets. In the next one, I angled the light toward my boy and he looks like a deer caught in my headlights. I'm thinking I might want a diffuser and I am leaning toward the Lightsphere II by Gary Fong. If you've had any experience with diffusers, I'm interested in hearing your opinion.