This would be a really cute photo, but the toys in the background are really distracting.  There are a few quick techniques to improve this distracting background.

What you’ll need:

• Adobe Elements 2.0

• Photograph in digital format

You’ll learn how to:

• Make a selection

• Feather a selection

• Use the Hue/Saturation tool to desaturate color

• Use the Gaussian Blur Filter

Open Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Open your Photo.

Choose File > Open and browse your system for photo.

Click photo of choice and then choose Open.

 Select the Lasso  tool from the toolbox.

Draw a selection around the object in the foreground. 

It doesn’t have to be perfect because we are going to feather the selection.

Choose Select > Inverse to invert the selection and make the background active.

Choose Select > Feather.

Choose a Feather Radius of about 5 pixels.

Press OK.

Note: You may need to feather the mask more depending on your image.

 Choose Enhance > Adjust Color > Hue/Saturation. 

Drag the Saturation slider bar to the left to de-saturate the distracting color.  Drag the bar until the image looks satisfactory.

Press OK.

Now we are going to blur the background to de-emphasize it.

Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur.

Experiment with the Radius until the background looks blurry, but not unrealistic. I used a radius of 20 pixels.

Press OK.

Press CTRL+D to deselect the selection.

Before

After