DnA (as they call themselves) have decided to let the baby sleep in a “thooLi”. What’s that, I hear my non-Tamizh friends ask. And if they are not asking, they are going to get the answer anyway.

The thooLi is a traditional baby-rocker; it’s an old, soft saree or veshti (dhoti) tied to a rafter beam, or a hook in the ceiling. Sometimes it comes with a cross-bar, sometimes not. It provides a snug bed for the baby, which the mother can rock, too; and it’s simple and inexpensive. (It’s also quickly changeable, as the baby pees or poops in it….Indian babies don’t always have clothes on, leave alone diapers. It used to be a common sight to see the thooLi dripping, or with puddles underneath, which were later cleaned up!)

Several people told DnA NOT to go the thooLi way; reasons ranged from its being unsafe, to being so effective that the baby would then refuse to sleep anwywhere else! But still, they decided that they would have one.

So D “engineered” the cross-rod in the garage, and made the holes through which the ropes( that tied it to the hook in the ceiling, that he also put up) would go. It also was made in a way that the saree (well, in this case, a soft old sheet) could be adjusted.

The hook was drilled in the ceiling, slightly off-centre for their bed, but right over it, so that the thooLi would hang a few inches, directly over the bed, snd if, God forbid, Eli fell out, she would fall about two inches to the bed.

Eli seems quite happy sleeping in it…but she seems just as happy sleeping on the drawing-room sofa, in her car seat, anywhere….

Here's D, showing his engineering skills: Here's his daughter, doing the consumer test: She has given it a pissing passing grade: DnA say they also saw t his "ethnic baby rocker" on the net: click here

Oh, when I posted the picture of her fingers, I said I would get her toes, too, didn’t I?

Wasn’t that a neat way of getting some more pics of the Little Mouse into my LJ! She will be 7 days old tomorrow….OK, I promise, no more baby pics for a while, except this one of the famous musician, Yawni: