I don't think the white wall is distracting at all however I think you should go in much tighter on Chloe and really focus on her as the subject. Crop out the unnecessary space in your shot so that Chloe's filling the frame.
In your first one, even though I don't think white is distracting it's not adding anything either. I'd crop closely so you only have Chloe in against the background. In the second shot, remove the top of the space as Chloe isn't looking in that direction so it doesn't add to the picture. I think if you do that you'll have two really eye catching photos.
Don't worry too much if you're still trying to figure out your style. It's likely to evolve as you go on your photographic journey anyway - I know mine has
There's more to it than just "Posed" and "Candid". How you attempt to capture the emotion in a shot plays a big role in your ultimate style.
Just on your camera settings, be aware the if you go in closer with your 50mm f/1.8 will leave you with a really thin depth of field that makes the right focus critically important. Otherwise consider stopping down a little. In the case of your above photos, it looks like you were far enough away that Chloe is in full focus. My only other comment is that 1/40 is quite slow for children's photography given their propensity to not stand still for long. I'd recommend going faster when your subjects aren't asleep
I usually try 1/250 for children. Also, don't be afraid of higher ISOs - Your Canon should be able to handle an ISO of 800 or even 1000 without any noticeable noise. And perhaps also consider some post processing software like Adobe Lightroom that will allow you to remove the Noise while keeping the image sharp (I think Ginny covers this in the last chapters of the book).
Hope this helps.
