A new itch that may need scratching eventually

I think I'd like to take a photography class, and then, maybe, at some point, get a really good camera.  Since I take four thousand photos a day, it only makes sense that I should learn a bit more about lighting and aperture (what's that?  I don't know...) and stuff like that, as opposed to my current photographic strategies, which include trying to clear most of the junk out of the background of a shot, and then cropping the heck out of pictures whose background junk is still visible.  Now, let's be realistic. This isn't going to happen any time soon.  But I'm just putting it out there.  In the meantime, maybe I'll google a few articles just to appease myself.

I came across these shots recently, which don't need to be well-lit, properly composed, or background-junkless, because, lucky for me, kids are just funny and photographable so much of the time.