By now Ivan is relatively good at dressing by himself, because in the gaps between two caretakers he's often been on his own with that anyway, and also he's six already! He can do this! But he won't turn down the help, because it is nice to have someone be close and take care of him. He really likes that, and will take what he can get, even if it makes him look like a baby.

"Ivan Timoevich Braginsky. Nothing else." He raises his arms so Timo can get to the pants better. "That's normal, yes?" It's not clear if it is a question in the way that he phrases it, but it really isn't. More reinforcing his point. He has a perfectly normal name now, with a real father's name in it and all that. It's a nice thing to have. It's his.

"And the General is my great-grandfather. Me and mother lived with him because our grandparents didn't want us around. I think. They hated me, and I think they didn't like mother either. But that is because I'm a bastard. They said that that was to be expected." And that a lot of other things about him were to be expected too. And that they hadn't expected 'this' from his mother, and then they looked at him as if he was an old stinky fishhead. He shrugs. It hurts, but he's gotten used to it by now. It's just how things are, right? "I don't think the General hates me. He's just strict." Which is why Ivan has conflicting feelings about him - he feels no real bond, but at the same time he would be the one that he'd turn to for help. Even though the General has shown to not protect him when he needed it, like form his parents, but at other times he has, and that makes him practically the only person who's ever taken his side when there were more sides than one to pick from.