Thank you all for the quick replies. Some follow ups:

Literally my my only two middle seat options available for selection are row 6 and row 7. So row 1 is not viable although it sounds great!

I’m not concerned with the seat movement since it’s only a 2.5 hr flight. We’d rather be physically as close as possible

The photo below is from seatguru. I think it’s rows 6 and 7 and shot looking towards the front of the plane. The area I circled is the ideal angle for us because it has our heads closer and our feet angled away. Do you guys agree that this is row 7 and do you know if that partition is locked up?

Thanks again! Really impressed with the response times and knowledge here!