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 TUCSON — In an exuberant e-mail to family and friends Tuesday, the mother of Representative Gabrielle Giffords described remarkable progress by her daughter. According to the e-mail, Ms. Giffords scrolled through photographs on her husband’s iPhone, tried to undo his tie and shirt and even began to look at get-well cards and pages of large-print text taken from a Harry Potter book. 
 
 “Everyday Gabby improves and shows higher levels of comprehension and complex actions,” Ms. Giffords’s mother, Gloria, wrote. 
 
 The message from her mother could paint an overly optimistic picture of the congresswoman’s condition. Doctors have said Ms. Giffords is severely injured and faces a very long road to recovery. 
 
 Friends and family members said Mrs. Giffords sent the message out early Tuesday morning. Recipients forwarded it to others and a copy was later sent to The New York Times. 
 
 In one passage, Mrs. Giffords wrote: “They are even now having her move limbs on command. So now comes the ‘true grit’ part... and won’t be a stroll in a park although Mark predicts she’ll be up and walking around in 2 weeks.” The congresswoman is married to Capt. Mark E. Kelly, a naval officer and astronaut. 
 
 Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff, cautioned that Mr. Kelly was “ever the optimist.” 
 
 “As a sign of confidence in her strength — and one day ability to recover — he has whispered half-jokingly that she’s got two weeks from the day of the injury to be up and walking,” she said. 
 
 Mrs. Giffords also said in the message that her daughter would be released from the hospital in Tucson on Friday and flown to a rehabilitation center in Houston to begin aggressive physical and occupational therapy. But Ms. Giffords’s staff said no final decision had been made about when or where she would begin rehabilitation. She remains in serious condition. 
 
 Ms. Carusone said that Mr. Kelly was looking for the “best possible facility,” for his wife’s recovery which, beyond Houston, could include rehabilitation centers in Washington, D.C., Chicago and New York City. 
 
 Officials from the University Medical Center said in a statement Wednesday that no discharge date has been confirmed. 
 
 Ms. Giffords’s doctors say they are encouraged but urge caution. She is not yet trying to speak, they said, and the most difficult challenges are still to come. 
 
 Dr. Randall S. Friese, a trauma surgeon who has operated on Ms. Giffords, said Monday that Mr. Kelly had told him he believed Ms. Giffords was now smiling. 
 
 “I wasn’t there,” Dr. Friese said. “Mark told me that he thought he may have seen her smile. We’re all very optimistic so we could be wrong. So we all want to see the best but sometimes we see what we want to see. But if he says she’s smiling then I buy it.” ||||| Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is expected to be released from a Tucson, Ariz., hospital Friday just less than two weeks after she suffered a gunshot wound to her head, her office said today. 
 
 She will be moved from the University Medical Center to Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation hospital, which specializes in helping people recover from brain injuries. 
 
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 “The congresswoman’s family wants to ensure she receives the best rehabilitative care possible for her type of serious penetrating brain injury,” said Dr. Michael Lemole, one of the congresswoman’s neurosurgeons at UMC. 
 
 “As a result, they considered facilities around the country, including rehabilitation hospitals in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and Houston.” 
 
 Mark Kelly, the congresswoman’s husband, said he and Giffords’ parents weighed many factors, including the Houston facility’s proximity to Tucson and its “outstanding reputation.” 
 
 For the past 21 years, TIRR Memorial Hermann has been recognized as one of the top-rated rehabilitation hospitals in the country by U.S. News & World Report, Giffords’ office said. 
 
 “I am extremely hopeful at the signs of recovery that my wife has made since the shooting,” said Kelly. 
 
 “The team of doctors and nurses at UMC has stabilized her to the point of being ready to move to the rehabilitation phase. Their goal – and our goal – has been to provide Gabby with the best care possible. It is for that reason that we have chosen to have her undergo rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann, which has a national reputation for treating serious penetrating brain injuries and is also in a community where I have family and a strong support network.” 
 
 Giffords’s mother told family and friends in a Tuesday e-mail that the congresswoman has expressed “higher levels of comprehension and complex actions,” including looking through photos on her husband’s iPhone, The New York Times reported. 
 
 As of late Wednesday afternoon, Giffords was still listed as being in serious condition, though doctors said her health continued to improve.
– Gabrielle Giffords will be released from the hospital on Friday, heading instead to the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Politico reports. The center specializes in brain injury recovery. Giffords’ mother sent out an excited email today, telling friends that Giffords was recovering so well that she’d been able to look at get-well cards, scroll through photos on her husband’s iPhone, and even try to unbutton his shirt and pull off his tie. “Everyday Gabby improves and shows higher levels of comprehension and complex actions,” Gloria Giffords wrote, according to the New York Times. “They are even now having her move limbs on command. So now comes the ‘true grit’ part… and won’t be a stroll in the park.” Doctors say Giffords is now trying to speak, and that her husband reported seeing her smile.