MARK MY WORD: LIFE CAN BE FUN IF THE MOSQUITOES AREN'T BITING

There's nothing like a rainbow rooter. Every family should have one.

Bailey is downright enthusiastic about rainbows.

Never mind the pot of gold, it's the colors she loves. Our youngest daughter knows the colors by heart: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.

They're talked about in Bailey's rainbow book with its ribbons of color.

Bailey likes to draw rainbows too, arching monuments of color put together with magic markers.

Nature's rainbows seem effortless, but just as pretty.

You don't have to be 5 years old to love rainbows. Even adults stop to take notice of heaven's palette.

But in our home, Bailey is by far the most committed to rainbows.

We're not surprised. Bailey is, after all, Nature's Child. She loves the outdoors: the mud, the bugs and just about everything else that thrives in our humid part of the world.

I'm not like that. I prefer air-conditioned comfort and a bug-free environment.

I don't like venturing out in my yard at dusk when the hungry mosquitoes are biting.

Those bugs love me. I'm an all-you-can-eat feast to them.

Thanks to the World Wide Web, we can now have advanced warning of the bad bugs. Go to skeeterbites.com, type in your ZIP code and up pops a mosquito forecast. The site rates Cape Girardeau as one giant bug bite for the next three weeks. "You are at serious risk for mosquito bites," the Web site warns.

Of course, you don't need a Web site to know they're biting. You're skin will tell you.

Our oldest daughter, 9-year-old Becca, likes the outdoors too, just as long as Mother Nature includes a swimming pool, amusement park or a bicycle in the mix.

Becca's not alone in her love of amusement parks, particularly ones run by that giant mouse.

Fortunately, she likes to read too. That's good because mosquitoes rarely read anything but the New York tabloids.

They're too busy biting. They don't have time for cows that type and other children's stories.

Thankfully, we have time for such tales. It's one of the great things about being a parent -- it gives you an excuse to read all those children's books.

We've progressed way beyond Mother Goose. Our latest raid on the bookstore netted us everything from kids' poems to pig stories.

While the tabloids scream out headlines about the missing Chandra Levy, we're reading about "Click, Clack Moo: Cows that Type." With kids' books, there's more to life than the printed word. There are also all those tabs to pull. We like the ones that turn black and white pictures into color as vivid as a rainbow.

Books have come a long way since Gutenberg printed that Bible. These days, they're on tape too.

One of our book-loving friends listens to book tapes in the car. She recently gave us a whole bag of book tapes.

Joni has started listening to books too. Mysteries, not mosquitoes, are her bag.

I like mysteries too, provided there is a good ending.

As for Bailey, she still would rather see a book about rainbows. She doesn't read yet, but she's seen the pictures and heard Joni read the words.

Bailey can recite the story almost word for word.

She lovingly clutches the book. "Rainbows, rainbows, rainbows," she gleefully shouts.

You can't argue with such enthusiasm. It's what makes rainbow rooting so much fun.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.