There were about a million iterations of this outline. It wasn’t easy to figure out. I think the piñata was in the mix pretty early on. We were toying with a story following Todd’s heart attack where the group wanted to throw him a surprise party but they were scared of startling him too much so they planned to do a “reasonable and relaxed” surprise party. That story ended up not working out for various reasons but the piñata was involved there, and I guess it never left!

You guys always find ways for your set decorators and art directors to have such fun with the show. Was the whole extravagant baby-proofing process a difficult thing to bring to life?

This was a bit of a balancing act because Carol, as we know and love her, never does anything halfway. So in any other episode we would have probably had the whole house decked out with pool noodles and stuffed animals and more bubble wrap, but this was also the first time we were seeing this beautiful new set. We didn’t want it to get overshadowed in any way. The packing peanut stairwell was a good compromise (even though that was done by Tandy) because it was still over the top, a total eye sore, and it’s like, we all know what stairs look like, you know? No one was missing out.

The first real baby storyline takes place in this one with Dawn’s continual crying. Were you guys hesitant to start doing baby stories? Excited?

I think we were definitely a little nervous. Working with babies is hard! You only get them for 20 minutes a day and if you need them to cry, you feel like an asshole because you’re wishing sadness upon a baby, but at the same time, you really need this shot. Thankfully, baby Dawn was perfectly moody.