Naming the Animals

Elena got a new stuffed animal lately. It's a replacement monkey for the monkey that Zoe (the boston terrier here) chewed up some time back.

Actually, that's kind of a funny story. That poor monkey had had literally its face chewed off. Elena found the monkey and became really disturbed. "Sick monkey?" Yes, honey. It's a very sick monkey.

So anyway, she's playing with Chimpbert (my monkey -- my employers gave him to me -- he's a code munkey) and her new monkey. A little dialogue ensued:

ER: "Monkey's name Chimpbert."
me: "Yes. What's your monkey's name?"
ER: "Monkey?"
me: "Yes. What's your monkey's name? My monkey's name is Chimpbert. Your monkey's name is..."
ER: "Mbumblatwofunisal"
me: "I'm sorry. What's its name?"
ER: "Barrn"
me: "Barrn?"
ER: "Yeah"
me: "Is Barrn a girl or a boy?"
ER: (confused) "monkey"
me: "Yes Barrn is a monkey..."
ER: "Name is Garin"
me: "What's that?"
ER: "Monkey's name is Garin"
me: "Right. Garin. I'm a boy, you're a girl. Chimbert's a boy. Is Garin a boy or a girl?"
ER: "You're a boy!"
me: "yes..."
ER: "I'm a girl!"
me: "yes..."
ER: "... Chimpbert's a monkey."
me: "Yes. Chimpbert is a boy monkey. Is Garin a boy monkey or a girl monkey?"
ER: "Girl monkey. He's a girl monkey."
me: "OK. She's a girl?"
ER: "Yeah! He's a girl!"
me: (um...)

And a couple days pass and now Garin's a boy. Go figure.