Today we went to meet our friends in Dorchester which is where I have grown up most of my life. It’s a half hour drive away but I’m pretty used to it now seen as my parents still live there and it’s where I go to work. When George and I first moved out together, we rented a little flat in the centre of Dorchester and our neighbours at the time just so happened to fall pregnant around the time we did. They live in Dorchester still whereas we moved out of town into the countryside.

We used to meet up a lot when we lived in the same building. We would take it in turns to cook dinner and host a games night, or if we couldn’t be bothered to cook we would head to the pub two minutes away from our flats. Now, both with children, us Mummy’s get the joys of meeting up every month with the babies. We have taken them swimming together, to a soft play together, to a playgroup together and to many a coffee shop together! They are becoming quite a sociable pair.

Today was no exception to the ordinary, we met up in Dorchester and decided to go out for a spot of lunch at a local pub/restaurant. We took them out in their prams and they sat and waved to each other really sweetly as we strolled along the bumpy paths to the restaurant. When we got there the place was deserted. We thought we had gotten lucky as our babies have a tendency not to sit still in a high chair.

We ordered our food, a couple of baguettes with a side of chips and sat the babies in their high chairs to feed them their lunch. Us Mum’s always come prepared as we both sat there and pulled out our storage tubs filled with snacks for them to eat (most of which, lets face it, probably ended up on the floor). A few couples had come into the restaurant by this point but didn’t seem to take too much notice of the odd screech of joy coming from our table. That was at least until one baby set off the other baby crying!

Ahhh, in a mad panic we both grabbed our babies out their high chairs to try and calm them down. We couldn’t bare to look around the restaurant for fear of people giving us disapproving looks but I thought if I could at least catch someone’s eye I could mime ‘sorry’ in an attempt to apologise for all the noise. No such luck, everyone kept their heads down.

When we left the restaurant having devoured our food as quickly as possible so we could escape, it dawned on us both that perhaps nobody was that bothered. After all, they could probably have sympathised with us at some point.

After a stressful lunch (with my jeans now covered in ketchup, yogurt and Marie sauce) and a pair of tearful babies we thought we would go for a walk around Poundbury to try and get them off to sleep. Leo however wanted to get out of his pram and go for a little stroll himself. I have to say, it is not the easiest thing in the world, trying to push a pram and keep hold of a toddler simultaneously. I persevered and his little legs soon gave up on him so I strapped him back in his pram and we headed back to the house. We stopped by the chocolate factory on our way back for some much needed stress relief (a.k.a a lot of chocolate) to enjoy with a warm cuppa.

All in all, although we had a somewhat stressful lunch, seeing our little ones playing so nicely together afterwards made it all worth the while. (And of course the chocolate helped bring us Mummy’s back to normality).

Mummy Hazel and My Little Leo xxx