Brandon, my favorite brother-in-law

I've written short bits about my brother-in-law before. He is 27 years old and the sweetest guy I have ever met! I am not sure what the 'official' diagnosis is...whether it is severely autistic or mentally retarded. But the bottom line is that he doesn't talk and his capacity to function as a 'normal' adult is limited. He can fend for himself fairly well, when it comes to making a sandwich, watching a movie, playing video games. And he is just such a nice guy. To everyone he meets. Every now and then he will get mad about something and you can tell he is mad because he turns lights off and on, or falling down on the floor, or slamming his foot in the door! But the majority of the time, he is just super happy and makes you smile.

Today I took a couple of pictures of him. Something to know about Brandon is that sometimes he gets on these 'kicks'. He's been on a Wiggles kick for quite a few years now. He only wears shirts that are the Wiggles colors-or shirts that have those colors in them! He's a creature of habit. Well, for whatever reason, he has started carrying about a box of Mandarin oranges. I thought maybe he was just using the box to hold stuff in it. Then Cindy told me there are actually 3 cans of Mandarin oranges in there still!! In addition to that, he has put a few things of his own in there and I believe he slept with the box last night. Today he took an orange from my parents' (with permission!) and stuck that in his box too. He makes me laugh. When I asked him why he had the box, he lifted his arm up and rested it on the box. I asked him if he was using the box as an arm rest. He shook his hand 'yes' emphatically. It made me laugh, so I had to take a couple pictures of him with his new box.