I have a Circe Morpheus turned into front-loading cargo bike with custom canopy. I can only add my voice to those saying that having the kid sitting up front is awesome for both.

The Morpheus might not be for you as a front loading cargo bike unless you feel like doing a lot of diy for a box and canopy. But it might be awesome as tandem when using the kiddy crank system. E upgrades are available.

Independent of that, have you checked out the tern gsd? They seem to have quite a nice canopy setup with the new model and it's really space efficient