From Strictly Come Dancing professionals to full-time parents, James and Ola Jordan certainly have their hands full when it comes to parenting their two-year-old daughter Ella.
EXCLUSIVE: James and Ola Jordan bursting with pride over toddler Ella - details
It’s been a full on week for the Jordans as they continue to make progress with Ella's potty training, preparing her for a new term at nursery. The duo also share the heartfelt reason they're now ready to leave their beloved family home, and pose an important question to readers about Ella's future education.
WATCH: James and Ola Jordan's daughter Ella unleashes her 'really naughty streak'
Want to read more about it? Scroll on for James and Ola's parenting column below. But first, Ella pops in for a chat.
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Ella: Hello, HELLO!
HELLO!: Hey Ella, how are you?
Ella: I'm good thank you, how are you?
James: Shall we just do the interview with Ella, then?
Ola: You won't be needing us anymore!
Why the Jordans are leaving their family home
Ola: So the good news is we think we've sold our house.
James: We're looking to relocate, but the problem we're finding is that now we've started looking at other properties, we realise how nice our home is.
The Jordans' family home in Kent boasts pristine interiors
Ola: You don't realise what you actually have until you start looking at other properties. It's really difficult.
James: We are struggling a bit. We have someone who wants to buy our house, but we literally cannot find anything we want to buy.
Ola: We basically decided to move because our house at the moment just isn't the right space for a young child. We have to put Ella first.
James: It's the kind of house that would be perfect for children who are aged eight and above, but that means waiting years until it's right for our family. Then, of course, if we have another child we'll be waiting even longer.
James and Ola's home has a large outdoor pool
Ola: We could end up living in the house for ten years before it suits our family's needs. That's why we're moving on.
James: We'll probably be asking the new owners if we can buy it back in ten years because we love it so much! It's just not right for us right now.
HELLO!: What made you want to move?
Ola: We're looking for more outdoor space. We also want a home where the kitchen opens out into the garden.
James: At the moment our kitchen goes out onto a balcony. The views are spectacular, but we're worried about letting Ella out to play because there's a metal staircase and it's unsafe.
Ella has fun at the park with mummy and daddy
James: Ella just loves ice cream at the moment. I took her to the park this week and she crawled up into this climbing frame and started acting out being an ice cream vendor.
Ola: She'll go: "Would you like ice cream?" and will act out making one from a pretend machine, then pass you the ice cream.
James: She did the cheekiest thing though…
Ola: She put her hand out and went: "Money?" We have no idea where she learnt that from!
James: We don't even use cash. She pretends to put the money into her pocket too. We're just baffled as to how she learned that. She surprises us every day.
Outdoorsy Ella loves playing at the park and on her scooter
Ola: We also had such a lovely day at Leeds Castle this week, Ella loved it.
James: There’s so much for her to do there. They have climbing frames, slides, zip wires, mazes, ice cream stands and beautiful lakes - it’s such a nice place to take her.
Ola: This might annoy the dog lovers out there, but I also like how you never see dogs off the lead there. It’s not that we don’t like dogs, but it does make me nervous when a big one comes up to Ella and it’s not on a lead. You never know how it’s going to react.
James: We just feel safe there with Ella, and she can’t get enough of it. Saying that, I struggle to keep up with her sometimes - she’s so fast and energetic!
Ola: She’s definitely going to be sporty, like her mum.
James: Ha! Very funny.
The Jordans prepare to send Ella back to nursery
Ola: I'm actually looking forward to Ella going back to nursery. I always used to wonder why parents would talk about the 'back to school bliss' when their kids went back to school, and it does make sense to me now.
James: We really need a bit of our own time now. We want to start focusing on the move and on our work.
Ola: She's also so advanced and so clever, it's getting to the point now where she needs the mental stimulation from nursery to help teach her things. I think it will be such a good thing for her to go, so we're really looking forward to her starting again next week.
James: We’re of course expecting it to pull on our heartstrings when we drop her off and she gets upset, but ultimately it’s the best thing for her to be with friends and learning.
Ella's very nearly potty trained
James: Ella’s doing so well with her potty training.
HELLO!: We can’t believe how quickly she’s picked it up! Well done Ella.
Ola: Last night she didn’t even do a wee in her nappy. She woke James up at 4am asking to go for a wee, so he took her to the toilet.
James: It’s all very positive. We’re so proud of her progress and I think we’re confident now we can send her to nursery without her nappies.
Ola: I think we feel so proud because we’re first time parents, and to be honest, we didn't really know what we were doing when it came to training her. We have wondered if our reluctance as parents to teach her when she was a bit younger held her back from learning, but it's worked for us so far. We can't be too harsh on ourselves - we didn't know what we were doing.
James and Ola are so proud of Ella's progress
James: It's a learning curve for her just as much as it is for us. Lots of people said to us that we should've taught her earlier, but our health visitor warned us that she could struggle with it because she's so mentally advanced.
Ola: They said her brain is so overloaded with new things that teaching her too young could be a problem. We taught her when she was two years and four months old - and she's taken to it like a duck to water.
James: We didn't want to pressure her. She was ready for it when it came to it.
James and Ola have a big decision to make for Ella
James: She's just such a character. I know she's our daughter so we're going to be biased, but she's just so full of personality…
[Ella cries]
James: Ah, so she's having an argument with her mum now because she doesn't want her hands washed. She definitely gets her temper from me.
Ola: The videos that everyone sees of Ella in this column show her being the 'perfect child', but she does have her moments.
Ella can have her 'moments' sometimes!
James: She smashes stuff up a lot, which is quite frustrating. I'm laughing about it but it can be difficult. The other day she was playing in her ball pit for example. There must be 400 balls in there. She'll empty the whole thing by launching each ball at Ola and I.
Ola: We're going, "no Ella, don't do that", but she's got this really naughty streak to her.
James: We really need to start looking at schools too. We're debating where to send her because we need to start applying soon. We actually wanted to ask our readers how they decided between private school and public school for their children (apart from the financial aspect of course).
We're finding that decision quite hard at the moment because we don't necessarily have loads of spare money to send her private, but we would find a way to earn it if we felt it was the right decision for Ella.
Ola: We need to really sit down and work out whether or not we can afford to do that.
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James: I know there's quite a big debate about private schools. I've seen on the news that some people think private school shouldn't be an option because it's not fair on those families who can't afford it. But, my opinion is that if we can afford it, and if it's going to help Ella's growth, then I would scrimp and scrape to get the money to do whatever I can for our daughter.
Ola: It's just one of those things we need to think about. There are several lovely public schools near us too, so we need to decide what's best for Ella.
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