MSNBC— Two photos of a smiling Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were released early Sunday by her office, her hair shorn short but few other telling signs of her gunshot wound to the head.

The Facebook photos, the first clear snapshots of Giffords since the shooting five months ago, showed how far she has come since a gunman shot her in the left side of her forehead during a constituent meet-and-greet in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson.

But her spokeswoman, Pia Carusone, has cautioned that Giffords still has a long way to go in her recovery.

The photos show the congresswoman outside. She smiled directly into the camera in one, while she sat next to a woman in the other while smiling downward

The images were taken on May 17 by P.K. Weis, a photojournalist who has known Giffords for more than a decade.

“Any photographer in the country would have loved the opportunity to take these pictures and I was delighted to be asked,” Weis said. “Her staff asked me to do it because she wanted someone who was not a stranger — someone she would be comfortable around.

“It was very inspiring to see how much she had recovered in four-and-a-half months. I was excited to see her and to see her smile. She was glad to see me, was in a good mood, smiling and laughing and seemed to enjoy the experience. I certainly did, too.”

Interactive: Giffords’ shooting (on this page)

Giffords has been in a Houston rehab facility since two weeks after the Jan. 8 shooting. Six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Giffords.

Carusone said Friday that Giffords could be released sometime this month .

She said doctors and family are considering “many factors” while making the critical next-step decision to release Giffords from TIRR Memorial Hermann, the hospital where she has been undergoing intensive daily rehabilitation since late January.

“We’re looking at before the end of the month. We’re looking at early July,” Carusone said. “We don’t have a date.”

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