Archie and Lilibet grow up so fast: A look at their life in California

Prince Harry, during a video call with the winners of the WellChild Awards, shared an update on his children and how they were progressing, learning, and growing. He said, "They're doing great… Archie is very, very busy and Lili is learning to use her voice which is great." But what do these mini royals get up to in their hometown of Montecito, California?

Archie Mountbatten-Windsor is three years old. Few photos of the little tot have been released. Archie (now 6th in line to the throne after the passing of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) is being brought up alongside his sister, Lilibet, in his parent's Californian mansion in Montecito.

Since they moved into the town of Montecito in March 2020, the small family of Harry and Meghan has lived a relatively secluded life. However, despite their withdrawal from the British royal family and their dismissal from the press, the couple has shown some aspects of their daily lives to the public. Let's have a look.

We got a glimpse into Archie's parents' expansive gardens as he celebrated his second birthday last year in the Californian mansion. While they are fierce at protecting their children's privacy and refraining from sharing many photos, they did post this picture for the occasion of the boy's birthday. We weren't so lucky this year.

(Image: The Archewell Foundation)

Another photo of the family, with Meghan and Harry hugging their nearly-2-year old son, showed the couple standing barefoot with the toddler in their arms. It looked like he had gotten quite tall and could be a tall chap in the future!

(Image: Misan Harriman, Instagram)

Archie welcomed a new sister on June 4, 2021: Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor. The baby's name has a lot of meaning: Lilibet is a nickname for Queen Elizabeth and Diana obviously refers to Harry's mother, Princess Diana.

(Image: Instagram, Archewell / @savethechildren UK)

Meghan is a hands-on mother who likes to teach Archie and Lilibet about the possibilities of life. She wants her children - as well as others by way of the Archewell Foundation's work - to know that they can be whatever they want, regardless of who they are or what they look like.

"We read these books," she told Oprah about her time with Archie, "and there’s one line in one that goes, ‘If you can see it, you can be it.’ And then he goes, ‘You can be it!’"

(Image: Instagram, Archewell / @savethechildren UK)

Meghan Markle doesn't just read children's books, she writes them as well! In June 2021, she released 'The Bench', an illustrated story about a boy and his father. It's based on her own experiences with Prince Harry and his son, she says, and she hopes that it "resonates with every family, no matter the makeup, as much as it does with mine." The illustrations were made by Christian Robinson.

(Image: preview of 'The Bench,' Penguin Random House)

The Sussexes love to go out and explore the landscapes and beaches of their California town. There's a lot of "outdoor space where I can go for walks with Archie," Harry told Oprah Winfrey during their interview in March. "We can go for walks as a family and with the dogs, and we can go on hikes. We’ll go down to the beach, which is so close."

Archie often joins his parents for a walk with the dogs on the beach. In fact, a source told People magazine, Archie "is best friends with his dogs. They make him laugh and are gentle with him."

(Image: 'Oprah with Meghan and Harry,' CBS)

Harry had told Oprah that cycling is one of his favorite things to do with Archie. "The highlight for me is sticking him on the back of the bicycle in his little baby seat and taking him on these bike rides, which is something I was never able to do when I was young," he said.

The prince must look like other stars regularly spotted on their bikes in Santa Barbara, with their children on the back, like Naomi Watts, Sheryl Crow, and (a while back, in this photo) Heidi Klum and Martin Kirsten. He may even attach a little cart to his bike, so he can take both Archie and Lilibet for a ride!

"I can see him on the back and he’s got his arms out and he’s like, ‘Whoo!’ chatting, chatting, chatting, going, ‘Palm tree! House!’ and all this sort of stuff," Harry told Oprah.

When Oprah asked the couple whether Archie (at this point he was 2 years old) is talking a lot, Meghan Markle said: "Oh my gosh, he’s on a roll. In the past couple weeks, it has been 'hydrate,' which is just hysterical." Harry added: "Whenever anyone leaves the house, he’s like, ‘Drive safe’... Which is really...." and the two laughed out loud.

Archie and Lilibet are going to be real American kids. At their elementary school, they are likely to get lessons in Spanish.

Forbes magazine assumes that Meghan and Harry's children may learn to speak Spanish, in case they stay in California and go to a school like Montecito Elementary.

In the gardens of his parents' house, Archie has his own little cottage, a swimming pool, a playground, and a chicken coop. The couple's Christmas message in December 2020 showed Archie's playhouse with the three Sussexes and their two dogs: Guy the beagle and Pula the black labrador retriever.

The chicken coop on Meghan and Harry's estate is called 'Archie's Chick Inn'. Despite its name, Meghan Markle loves this place as much as her son does. She loves "getting back down to basics," Meghan told Oprah.

(Image: 'Oprah with Meghan and Harry,' CBS)

On the still from the Oprah interview, you can clearly see that Meghan Markle was expecting at the time. Now, Lili has finally been born. Harry told Oprah that it was "amazing" just "to have any child, any one or any two... But to have a boy and then a girl, you know, what more can you ask for?"

Here we see the announcement of the couple, in February 2021, that Archie was going to be a big brother. His father tells Oprah: "Now we’ve got our family. We’ve got, you know, the four of us and our two dogs, and it’s great." He added that, after their baby girl, they would have no more children. "Two is it."

Now that Lili's been born, there are four Mountbatten-Windsors living in the Montecito mansion. But maybe we should count Grandma Doria Ragland in as well. She lives close to the family and often looks after Archie, The Daily Mail reports. Now that Meghan and Harry are busy with little Lili, she'll probably stay over frequently.

Archie seems to be very much removed from his parents' old life in the British royal family. However, the couple kept in touch with the child's great-grandmother, Queen Elizabeth before her passing. "I’ve spoken more to my grandmother in the last year than I have done for many, many years," Harry told Oprah. "We did a couple of Zoom calls with Archie."

We haven't seen Harry and William's families together in a long time and continued tensions surrounding both Harry and William means we may not see Archie and Lili playing with their older nephews and niece any time soon.

When talking about her time in the royal family, Meghan tells Oprah: "All the grandeur surrounding this stuff is an attachment that I don’t personally have. I’ve been a waitress, an actress, a princess, a duchess. I’ve always just still been Meghan, right? So, for me, I’m clear on who I am, independent of all that stuff."

And she concluded: "The most important title I will ever have is Mom. I know that."