James and Ola Jordan are feeling chuffed to bits this week because their three-year-old daughter Ella has reached some impressive milestones.
The former Strictly Come Dancing stars have enjoyed a lovely summer with their little girl in their new Kent house, as well as going abroad to Turkey on holiday.
Now Ella is back at nursery, she's super pleased with herself as she's made huge leaps forward with her speech, hobbies and bedtime routine – she can also handle losing at family games, which is better than some adults.
Catch up on the Jordans' news in their HELLO! parenting column below…
Ella can swim!
James: Ella keeps asking to go swimming, she really loves it. People frown over kids watching tablets, but she watches these videos on YouTube of children swimming underwater and jumping in. When we were on holiday in Turkey she started getting more confident and jumping in with her armbands on.
One day I took her swimming and she said she didn't want to wear her armbands. So she didn't wear them and she started putting her head underwater more – we'd go under, look at each other and wave.
I said, 'Go on, try and swim to me.' She can now swim on top of the water but with her head down, just a little bit. I'm trying to build her confidence and it's working. So she's made a big step with that.
She can ride her bike too. I went out and bought her a balance bike because I could see her relying too much on her stabilisers on her other bike. Within two days she was lifting her feet up, and she now flies around on the balance bike, totally in control.
The phantom playdate
HELLO!: Have you had a playdate at your house yet?
Ola: No, not yet.
James: That's Ola's fault, I blame Ola for that! I keep telling her about it but she doesn't text people. I don't have the mum's numbers – Ola does.
Ola: Yeah, I take the blame. I haven't done it yet. Actually, she's going to have a playdate on Sunday. Our friends are coming…
James: It's not really a playdate though, is it? It's not one of her friends from school.
HELLO!: Do we need to set you a challenge to set up a playdate?
James: Yeah, you do. That is the challenge.
Ola: Ella's back at nursery now. She went in yesterday and everyone was laughing because Ella and her best friend were jumping around all excited to see each other. It was so sweet.
James: Because it's been so long... because we don't do playdates at home…
Ola: Alright, James!
But yeah, she was so happy to go in. She went, 'Bye mummy, have a great day!' There was a boy in front of her crying today but she wasn't bothered at all. She's getting very grown up.
Little Miss bossy boots
James: She is very bossy though. She tells us what to do. Like she went, 'Daddy, you're taking me swimming today.' I said, 'Oh, am I?'
Ola: She said to me, 'No, don't stand like that mummy. Can you put your arms down?' or when we were playing football and I had my hands in my pockets, and she told me to take them out! She was even bossing me around at her gymnastics class.
HELLO!: Uh oh, queen of the house…
James: Yeah, she is. Things like that I find funny but there are boundaries as to what she can and can't do. She can hear in our voices when she's pushed it too far I think.
Major milestone for the Jordans
Ola: Oh, another thing happened! Ella's bedtime routine has improved a lot. I was having to lie with her until she fell asleep, but not now.
James: I say, 'Right daddy's got to do some work on the laptop,' and I go downstairs so she knows there's no point asking me to lie with her.
Ola: Then mummy goes and has a shower and gets ready for her bedtime. Ella doesn't get out of bed at all, but if she's not very tired, she'll wait for me to finish my shower – some days though she'll just fall asleep.
HELLO!: This is progress!
© instagramOla: It is! She gets angry with me sometimes though. The other night she said, 'Why were you in the shower for so long?!'
James: Last night she fell asleep on her own. We're getting there.
Ella gets her Ls!
James: When we went to Ella's last parent-teacher evening at her nursery, they told us they were slightly concerned that she can't pronounce her Ls. She used to say 'Eeya' for 'Ella' and 'yeyo' for 'yellow'. So we've been on at her to pronounce her Ls and she can say them now.
Ola: Yesterday when I dropped her off she was telling her teacher at the door about her Ls. She was saying Ella and yellow and all those words with L in. Her teachers were like, 'Oh my goodness Ella, you're doing so well!' She was really pleased with herself.
James: I couldn't say my Rs when I was little. I used to say Wobert instead of Robert.
Oh, and Ella has started correcting us all the time with our language – or our friends, or people who come round to do work on our house who don't say their Ts!! They'll say, 'That will be forty-five quid,' and she'll go, 'No! It's forTy'. It's so funny.
Ola: She corrects me all the time and she's only three and a half.
© InstagramTeaching Ella how to lose
Ola: We filmed ourselves playing a game last week and Ella had a meltdown because James won and she didn't.
James: We had so many people message us saying, 'Great parenting.'
Ola: Obviously James doesn't let her win…
James: No, I do let her win a lot, most of the time. But she needs to understand that she's not going to win all the time, so I beat her sometimes and she hates it. She's such a bad loser.
But, because I've been doing that, recently when I've been winning, she goes: 'Well done daddy for winning, that's really good,' and she gives me a hug.
Some people messaged us saying I should have let her win! Well, no, that's not what we teach. You don't win at everything in life; you get a lot of disappointments.
Ola: He was good at explaining to her that if she tries hard, she might win.
James: And if you don't win, it doesn't matter. I said it's impossible to win at everything.
