MARK MY WORD: BATH, BAND-AIDS AND CHEESEHEADS DO MIX

Life's worth a good splash in the tub.

Water parks are great -- particularly, when it's your bathtub in the dead of winter.

My daughters think it's great to splash around in the tub.

Becca is almost 5; Bailey just turned 1 last month.

Put them in a tub and you end up with more splashing than you can find at a beach party.

Becca likes to dump a ton of toys in the water, which leaves little room for two kids.

A well-known gambling boat in East St. Louis advertises that it knows how "to float your boat."

Forget it. Not in our bathtub. You can't float those cute, plastic bathtub boats -- not when Becca and Bailey are doing their best to sink them.

One good thing about the Bliss water park is that there's no charge, even on hair-washing nights.

There's nothing like a little splash to get our family in a good mood.

Becca likes the bathtub only when it resembles a water park. Otherwise, she would just as soon skip the bath.

Bailey, on the other hand, loves to take a bath. She loves to scoop water into her plastic pitcher and pour it out over and over again.

If practice makes perfect, Bailey is in good shape when it comes to the Bath Bowl.

Parents' lives revolve around the basics of life: when your children eat, sleep and take a bath.

Like any other job, parenting requires that you have the right tools for the task.

This means you have to have "101 Dalmations" and "Barbie" Band-Aids.

When I was a kid, they didn't have such a variety of Band-Aids. Mom and dad just bought the standard, cream-colored brand.

But kids today expect more. Their friends all wear the good-looking Band-Aids. You wouldn't want your child wearing less than the best-dressed Band-Aid to school or the day-care center.

For a while, we only had children's Band-Aids in our home.

On several occasions when I cut myself, I was forced to wear those sparkling Band-Aids to work.

It's definitely an attention-getter for those corporate power meetings.

OK, it's embarrassing. But so what? Joni and I have gone through several years of parenthood. We know all about life's embarrassing moments.

For now, we have decided to leave those splashy Band-Aids for our children. Joni purchased a whole new box of plain, old Band-Aids just for us.

I know it's the adult thing to do. But I must confess I like those sparkling Band-Aids.

The New England Patriots might want to stock up on these colorful Band-Aids. No one gives them much chance in today's Super Bowl.

I'm rooting for the Green Bay Packers like the rest of the universe.

But it's not because they have the best team. I'm rooting for them because their fans wear those silly, cheese hats.

Any team that has cheeseheads for fans is one worth rooting for. It's so wholesome. The only thing more wholesome would be milkheads.

As a parent, I can relate to cheeseheads. More importantly, so can my cheese-eating kids who have been known to wear their food.

But then dairy products are good for you. Fortunately, they wash off when you take a bath.

~Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.