From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
Today, everyone is very excited because my Uncle Alfred’s wife had a baby. It’s a girl. I don’t like babies very much. I like puppies and kittens much more. Puppies and kittens are soft and cuddly, and you can play with them. Babies are just stupid. They lie in their cribs and do nothing. When they are around, everyone coos at them, and no one pays any attention to you. Grandmother says that if I am very good I can go see the new baby tomorrow; but it isn’t worth being good for.
I could not find Alfred on the family tree, so he may not have been a blood relative. I have only a few photos of Hilda and in almost every one of them she is pictured with a dog and/or a cat — her love of animals continued throughout her life. I don’t know if she ever became fond of babies.