FWIW: I think the sharpness is on the tip of her nose instead of her eyes. I tend to shoot wide-open portraits too (and I'm quite good at it) but I find it a lot harder with ~50mm lenses than with ~75mm lenses.
Have a look at the shot again. There should be a point where you can see the sharp texture of the fabric of her clothes. If I'm right then the focusing plane is indeed on her nose or just in front of it.
The 2nd shot is superb indeed
This one was shot with a 85mm F1.2, wide open. With a DOF that small it's impossible to have two eyes in focus at the same time unless the person is looking straight into the camera. And that's hard with children