I participated in my first 'kid casting' session today, and it wasn't even close to what I had expected. First, all of the the boys attended and were on time and second, the mothers were really nice, not pushy and not your typical "stage moms".

On the way to the theater I was visualizing a group of kids similar to those who participated in my school plays.

Once again, dead wrong...but I'm used to it.

The boys were shy, timid, insecure, so adorable, talented and charming, but not over-the-top charming. Also, they were all so different from each other; there was the athletic-looking/ easy going kid, the skateboarder kid, the young'un, the eager-to please kid, the well-spoken kid, etc...

What I found to be most amusing, was the whole issue of puberty. Although the kids were born within 24 months of each other...relatively speaking, there was such a fine line between the post-pubescent and the pre-pubescent. The post-pubescent boys were all 5'1 with a very distinct voice and the pre-pubescent kids were 4'6 at the tallest and had very young voices...not to mention; their posture, walk, stance, conversation, interest and confidence were entirely different.

The changes that come with puberty are common sense, only without having parenthood or education on my resume the only opportunities to witness this phenomenon up close was the puberty episode on the The Brady Bunch and when I was their age, but at that age boys were either really gross or really cute, depending on whether I was pre-p or post-p.