urbanMamas Portland

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the Events Calendar on Metro Parent's PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Kid's Nature Night Out: Volcanology at Cooper Mountain.

We are going to be at the Sunday Parkways! Come say hi this Sunday, May 12th. You will be able to find us in Glenwood Park, right off SE 87th Street. 

The lovely folks at Saint Cupcake are sending over some decadent treats and we'll make sure to have some comfy spaces for you nursing mamas or for folks looking to take a break.

If you can't break away from your mama-filled activities this weekend, don't sweat it. We are going to be at all of the Sunday Parkways events this summer so surely we will see you soon!

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the Events Calendar on Metro Parent's PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Family Dance and Potluck at Quaking Grass. Start the night with a potluck - bring something to share if you would like. Followed by this months intention and then dancing. Friday 5-7pm. $3/person.

Monsters Under Bridges Book Launch Party at Land. This story serves to provide the hard facts for the creatures we all know live under our bridges! Unique and rare sightings have been documented to show us their habits, diets, what mischief they are up to, and what weird things they do. Friday 6-9pm. Free!

Bird Festival in Sellwood. Celebrate the return of migratory birds to the Portland area at Portland's Migratory Bird Park (Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge) and Sellwood Park. The festival includes booths, bird walks, crafts, face painting music and other activities for all ages.  Saturday 9am-3pm. Free!

Free Family Day at the Washington County Museum. Test your skills at becoming an astronaut with astronaut training camp! Participate in physical and mental challenges that will prepare you for a trip to space. Saturday 10am-1pm. Free!

St. Johns Parade and Bizarre. Included is local music, street performers, a vendor's market, sausage, pizza, a Bier Garten, kids art activities and more! Saturday 10am-7pm. Free!

WellMama Mother Baby Wellness Fair Vancouver. A festival dedicated to helping moms and their young families get and stay healthy. Saturday 10am-2pm. Free!

National Train Day at Union Station. Vintage and modern trains, professional singers & dancers, along with exhibitions galore will entice families to Portland's Union Station. Clown corps, face painting, dancing, music and a Chuggington Station kids play area. Saturday 10am - 4pm. Free!

Drop-In and Make! at the Museum of Contemporary Craft. Geared towards the youngest museum goers - features a drop-in and drop-out craft activity in the Lab organized by a local artist or designer. Saturday 1-3pm. Free with museum admission ($3).

Second Saturday at the Water Center in Vancouver: Wetlands. Kids and families are invited to enjoy and explore the wet, spongy soil of the swamps, marshes and bogs. Saturday 1-3pm. Free!

East Sunday Parkways. Celebrate Mother's Day with a 7-mile jaunt around East Portland, including two miles on the Springwater Corridor.  Glenwood, Bloomington, Lents, and Ed Benedict Parks will be filled with activities, food, vendors, music, and more. Sunday 11am-4pm. Free!

Chinese Fun Sundays at Lan Su. Enjoy family-friendly crafts and basic Mandarin instruction. Sunday 1-3pm. Free with admission.

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

Back in August when there was a rousing debate on fluoride on urbanMamas; I was pretty ambivalent about the issue. Like many, I drew on my own experience growing up with it to make my judgement. Drinking tap water and perhaps many other fluoridated beverages, showering and bathing in it daily for over several decades and not thinking much of it other than what I was told from my dentist - fluoride helps to prevent cavities and dental decay. And yet, I was still very surprised at the strong opposition to fluoride among friends and acquaintances here in Portland. I found myself unintentionally in the middle of the issue many times and was not able to respond to the many reasons why fluoride is bad.

When you read and hear about the case against fluoride it is alarming - industrial waste byproduct, toxic, causes cancer, infertility, lower IQ, doesn't help cavities, and the list goes on. It made me really wonder if I had been led astray all these years by my dentists, doctors and other public health professionals. But rather take the sound bites, tweets, Facebook posts at face value, I felt the need to check the sources. And what I continually found is that those snippets of "facts" that were shared so freely by anti-fluoride supporters weren't quite capturing the conclusions of the research studies.

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the Events Calendar on Metro Parent's PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Cinco de Mayo at Waterfront Park. Plaza de Niños children's area open daily: Families can create crafts, get their face painted and participate in the piñata breaking game. Open Daily. Friday, Saturday & Sunday. $8 adults, $4 ages 6-12, Free under 6.

Free First Friday at the Children's Museum. Enjoy free admission the first Friday of every month, with special crafts, activities,and musical guests. Friday 4-8pm. FREE!

Al's Kids Clubs at Al's Garden Centers. Every mother loves flowers, especially when they are planted with love from her child. Learn more about annuals and plant a colorful pot of flowers in celebration of Mother's Day! Advance registration required. Saturday 9:30am. $5.

Incredible Edibles Plant Sale and Fun in SE PDX. This is your opportunity to buy organic veggie starts and herbs for your home garden so you can harvest nutritious, fresh-picked goodness for your table. Saturday 10am-3pm. Free to attend.

Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! at Capitol Hill Library. Join artist Judith Hankin in building real or imaginary 3D insects using colorful papers and special art materials. Saturday 10:30-11:30am. Free!

Free Comic Book Day. Free Comic Book Day is a single day when participating comic book specialty shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely free to anyone who comes into their shops. Saturday all day!

May Day is Lei Day in Vancouver. A full day of fun for the entire family, with hula, music, food, vendors, and arts and crafts, with  a "keiki" (kids) corner to entertain your youngsters with traditional Hawaiian games of skill and chance. Saturday 11am-6pm. $5.

Good for You, Kid! at New Seasons Happy Valley. Shopping with kids can be fun and a great learning experience, too. To help parents and young children feel welcome and at home when they shop, New Seasons Market is hosting an action-packed afternoon of fun. Saturday noon-4pm. Free!

Steve's Creature Feature at Northwest Library. Explore the amazing world of reptiles with Steve Lattanzi. Kids will be able to safely see, hear and touch some of the most amazing creatures on earth. Nature doesn't get any more real and fun than this! Saturday 3-4pm. Free!

Roller Coaster Sculpture at Sellwood-Moreland Library. Embark on a journey of discovery as you twist and twirl strips of paper to create architectural designs. Puppetkabob will show you how to transform everyday construction paper into what you dream as an ultimate roller coaster! Sunday 11am. Free!

Multicultural Day at AC Gilbert's Discovery Village. Enjoy performances, music and activities featuring cultures represented within the Salem community. Sunday noon-5pm. Admission $7 ages 3 and up.

Come rock out with your kids! Mr. Ben and Friends Benefit for The Oregon Public House at The Village Ballroom. Be a part of opening Portland's first non-profit brewpub. Sunday 4-5pm. Free (donations welcome, beer and wine $5).

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

We have talked a lot about the guilt of travel as working mothers, and how exhausting it is to coordinate child care for business trips and conferences. Even when the conference is brilliant, inspiring, rejuvenating, and chockful of connections that will help us down the road -- I can say all those things, for instance, about the one I attended this weekend, the Oregon Writers Colony spring conference -- when we get home there is the inevitable crash back into the family, both literal and figurative. I walked into the door Sunday late afternoon and my five-year-old ran crash into me with a hug; and I walked into the midst of my boys crashing after a little too much sugar from grandpa. They were wired and the house was extra chaotic and I -- oh, I was happy, to see my boys and on a high from the weekend, but this was so much work.

my room at the Sylvia Beach hotel at this weekend's conference. Blissful.

Since I'm a mother, however, according to a recent and blatantly sexist/is-there-such-a-thing-as-momist? article by the Wall Street Journal, all this is about is escapism.

The WSJ utilized that tried-and-true journalistic condescension, picking out all the very least important bits and turning it into the lede. ("Katherine Stone, a 43-year-old mother and wife from Atlanta, wants to leave her husband and children." [beat] "Just for a few days. On her trip, she will listen to panels addressing issues of concern to mothers, network with other bloggers, and stay in a hotel room that someone else will keep tidy.") Katherine, the mother getting the focus of this condescension is, by the way, a woman who blogs about postpartum depression.

Everyone who goes to conferences (let's be honest) enjoys them a little bit for a few of the wrong reasons. Who doesn't like to stay in a room they don't have to clean themselves? Who doesn't enjoy getting together with colleagues and friends they rarely see except virtually? This has nothing to do with being a parent. And definitely nothing to do with being a mom.

I'll be going to the same conference for which, supposedly, Katherine Stone is eager so she can leave her family behind. Like her, I'm really not that eager to leave them behind; it's just pretty expensive to bring your kids and spouse with you on a business trip where you're going to be working nonstop. This is why so few people do it. I'm also committed to forging partnerships for my magazine and presenting a panel on crowd funding for creative projects.

I'd like to ask the WSJ not to call me, or any of these women, a "mommy," unless actually we are your mommy. And I'd like the WSJ to think about these "mommy" centric pieces, and ask, is it any different for non-parents? Is it any different for men?

Well, other than relieving oneself of the childcare juggle, no. With all respect to Sheryl Sandberg, I really think that the kettle logic and regression fallacies offered by media outlets in support of the theory that mothers are flighty, pleasure-seeking, and unserious when compared to fathers and non-parents is the real problem keeping women from rising through the ranks of organizations.

It's hard enough to go through the second-guessing and priority-juggling when going on a business trip, without a supposedly serious financial newspaper poking fun at you. I'm all for print you know. But not (any more) the WSJ.

When my kids started grade school, I invested a pretty penny in buying the Crocodile Creek BPA-free lunch boxes. Even after losing several, I purchased replacements. After several years of daily use, I think it's time to retire my son's lunchbox. It's become tattered from washes, and getting moldy! The problem is, I am bothered that it has not held up over the years and now the potential adverse health effects of a moldy lunchbox outweighs the eco-consciousness of have a reusable container. What am I to do, throw it away? Repurpose it? Any suggestions for a more durable replacement?

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the Events Calendar on Metro Parent's PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Invasive Species Invasion at Columbia Springs. Volunteer with Columbia Springs to strategically battle the invasive plant species! Help turn the tide of the ecological war and insure this urban natural area is preserved in its best condition for the public to enjoy.  Saturday 9am-1pm. Free!

82nd Avenue of Roses Parade. Multi-Cultural Community Fair, Carnival Days & Classic Car Cruise-In. Free pony rides, free face painting, free live music, vendor galore, and more. Saturday 10am-4pm. Free!

Cloth Diapering 101 at Milagros. Thinking about cloth diapers? Have questions? Have tips to share? This casual gathering is a great opportunity to learn all about cloth diapering, get hands-on advice on diapering choices, etc. Saturday 11am-12pm. Free!

Día de los Niños/ El Día de los Libros at Beaverton City Library. Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day with us! On this day we celebrate children, families and reading. We will celebrate with bilingual storytelling and songs (in Spanish and English), crafts and bingo! Saturday 1-2:30pm. Free!

Komedy 4 da Kidz (Comedia para los niños) at Vancouver Community Library. This wonderfully interactive and bilingual (English/Spanish) performance combines physical comedy, jokes, juggling, object balancing, comedy magic and impromptu comedy situations. Saturday 2:30-3:30pm. Free!

The Alphabeticians at Mississippi Pizza. Where else are you going to find a kid's mosh pit? Saturday 4-5pm. $10/family.

Kids & Family Back-to-Nature Day for Lag ba'Omer. Hands-on fun for all! Art Projects, Music, Archery, Bonfire, Goats - Petting Zoo, Cheese, Ice Cream and Pita Making, Story time with hands-on fun for all! PLUS: Education Programs Open House for children age 2 through Grade 12. Sunday 9am-12pm. Free!

Carrie Mae Weems Family & Community Day at the Portland Art Museum. An all-day community celebration of family and storytelling through film and photography. Sunday noon-5pm. Free!

Children's Day/ Día de los Niños at Tigard Library. Kick off the event with a bilingual Spanish story time featuring books, songs and puppets. Stay to make a variety of simple puppets and enjoy refreshments, then create your own show on stage with your newly crafted puppets. Sunday 1:30-3pm. Free!

Hope this gives you some ideas. Have fun out there! And don't forget to double-check event details by calling or checking the website of the venue, performer, or host organization.

On Monday, April 15th, I woke up in a tizzy.  First, I was late for a meeting for which I had to commute an hour.  Second, we hadn't finished up our taxes.  Third, the funnest thing of the morning, it was the Boston Marathon, and the last Facebook status I saw was from a former PDX urbanMama, suited up in compression socks and bib number, ready to race.

I thought about our friend all morning wondering how she was feeling and how she was doing (undoubetdly strong, she always runs strong!).  After a busy day of meetings, I settled into another hour commute home and was horrified to hear the news.

"Late breaking news from the Boston Marathon finish line...."  and "....reports of two deaths, one of whom was a child of eight years old..." - the audio was unbearable.  As a "survivor" of sorts of what happened on September 11, 2001, I felt pangs of trauma resurfacing.  My heart beat mimicked how it behaved back then.  Every other moment, I let out tears.  And, as I drove, my hand covered my mouth in disbelief.

Our urbanMama friend was safe, though she was just picking up her warming blanket as the first impact set off.  Luck would also have it that her spouse and three children were running a little late to greet her, still a few blocks away from finish.  After hearing the comotion, the family re-routed to meet at another pre-determined location.

We have stories of friends who were there, stories of friends of friends.  Many of us, runners ourselves, can only imagine the confusion of feelings: the high of completing such a huge feat like a marathon and the low of realizing that something so awful had happened.

How is your family dealing with this current event, this tragedy?  Does it feel close?  Does it feel far?  For another former PDX urbanMama, it hits close to home.  Her 9-year old has nightmares, feeling so disempowered and depressed.  So, this mama has decided to organize an event, a worldwide run, on May 15, 2013, to honor those that ran the Boston Marathon and to honor the goodness in our world.  "MILES to teach GOODNESS" encourages us all to organize a run in our neighborhood, at the same time, to run 26.2 minutes to celebrate our communities and support one another.

Care to join?  Read more about the EmPOWERed Kids Run here or join the Facebook event here.

In our household, it still feels a little unreal.  We talk about it, we watch the news.  The event dampens our spirit.  We think we will join in on the EmPOWERed Kids Run to help us join in with the rest of the community to lift our spirits.

Here’s the scoop for the weekend. For more ideas on what to do this weekend, check the Events Calendar on Metro Parent's PDX Kids Calendar and the urbanMamas calendar page.

Mr. Hoo of the Alphabeticians performs music for kids at Milagros. He'll play his guitar, sing some songs, and Hoo knows what else? Ideal for ages 0 to 5. Friday 11am-noon. $3 suggested donation.

Family Friday Concert at Community Music Center. White Rhino Marimba performs African marimba music all over the Portland, Oregon area. Come and dance to the music of Zimbabwe!  Friday 7:15pm. Free Admission. Suggested donation: $5 per person or $15 per family. 

Nature's Gym Experience at REI Portland. A free and fun day celebrating all the ways to get active, stay fit, and enjoy a lifetime of outdoor adventures. Saturday 10am-4pm. Free!

Eric Carle Collage and Storytelling at the Lake Oswego Library. Portland Children's Museum presents an interactive storytime and paper collage craft. Saturday 11am. Free!

Eighteenth Annual Marimba Student Recital. 8 bands play high-energy music from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana. Saturday noon-4:30pm. Free!  

April Kites and Bubbles Kidical Mass Ride North Portland. Event starts with some playtime at Harper's Playground at Arbor Lodge Park, then a ride to Peninsula Park for flying kites and blowing bubbles. There will be some kites and bubbles providers; riders should bring some too. Saturday 2pm. Free!

Pendulum Aerial Arts Community Day & Student Showcase. Following a performance featuring both aerial and ground-based acts, community will be invited to participate in family-friendly activities including learning basic juggling and hooping tricks, taking photos with costumed artists in our interactive photo booth and enjoying healthy snacks. Sunday 12:30-3pm. Youth, Adults, Seniors: $10; Children under 6: Free! 

Hillsboro Latino Cultural Festival. Entertainment, soccer, parade, arts village, more. Sunday noon-5pm. Free! 

Earth Day Events 

Check out the PDX Kids Calendar Earth Day 2013 events guide here.