Great expression. I think this is the best angle on the dad from a composition standpoint in my opinion.
I think the words in the tree are detracting from it through - I'm thinking the impression you're getting is establishing that part of the story, and the words are a bit tough to read so you're drawn up there for no reason. I'd pull that out and then bump up the size of the text that's in the lower right. Maybe even add some space on the right so you can get his foot off the edge of the page to make some more room. I'm just remembering the times Will has said in the critiques that if you are going to put text in there, it has to be considered in the whole piece, so you want to make sure that's intentional, easy to read and looks like it belongs if you printed it.