When Toddlers Name Things

I still have my first teddybear. My mother is amazed he's still in one piece, since he's stuffed with rapidly degrading foam and covered with paper-thin fleecey stuff that has almost completely peeled off. Actually all that's left is the foam, turning to dust, in a netting that is the only reason Argle is still a bear. Yes, I named him Argle. How articulate were YOU on your first or second Christmas? Argle is what I called him, and so Argle was his name.
Kittyboy has a bear in a nurse outfit from his hospital stay, named Apple. As in the fruit, presumably. We don't know why. The yellow cichlid in a tank in the kitchen is Peekoo because that is how he says peekaboo, and she plays peekaboo with him, or so he believes. So Peekoo makes sense, but the world will never know why the nurse bear is Apple.
Better than Apple, though, is the fish we bought today. We went and bought a pleco to eat our algae in the big fish tank, and after we recovered from the unbearable excitement of BUYING A FISHIE, and poor fishie had gotten over the terror of being carried by a toddler and come out of hiding in the tank, I asked Kittyboy what he wanted to name his fishie. "Gank oo."
"So fishie's name is Gankoo?"
"Gank oo Gah."
"Your fish? What are you naming your fish?" I can't have heard that right...
"Gank oo Gah. Fishie gank oo Gah." He's used to having to repeat himself and clarify; obviously Mommy just wasn't understanding him.
"Your fish is named 'Thank you God'."
"Fishie GankooGah!" Proud happy smile, he has made Mommy understand now! Sometimes mommies just don't catch on the first or third time, you know.
As sweet as that is, I suspect there is indeed logic behind it, besides the precious thought that he is grateful to God for having created fishies to be our pets. One of his favorite meals is fish sticks, and he knows where food comes from and that God's creatures taste good. As we left Petsmart, he said, "Eat fishie?" and I had said no, this is a pet fishie, not for eating.
"Thank you God" is the prayer we taught him to say before meals..............