Shannon Phillips

The group casting call was packed with children and parents—SOME people chose to ignore the advisory that only one parent per child was invited. But everybody was really nice. I sat next to a mom from Berkeley with a boy only a few months older than Robin, who was, like me, doing the whole thing on a complete whim. Robin’s new favorite thing in the whole world is other children, so he was in heaven. He smiled at everybody while we waited, played in his own limited way with any other small person who came near (mostly by reaching for them and, if allowed, patting them gently), and grinned like a loon as soon as a camera was pointed in his direction. I think he charmed the socks off the talent scout. She interacted with him a little; asked me some questions about his development (whether he scootches, crawls, sits, etc.: the answers are respectively yes, no, and yes); snapped a couple pictures; then told me he was very cute and friendly and that we’d hear back by Friday.

I have no big expectations, but we had fun today, and I think Robin did as well as could be asked.