Is it half full or half empty

Mom has had a lot of visitors in the last couple days.  My aunt and uncle and many family friends and course me and dad.  Everyone agrees just how much more alert she is.  Mom is actually following conversations and able to put her two bits in.  She isn't simply parroting what she hears, she is getting it and participating in her surroundings the best she can.  It isn't complete sentences and most times off topic regardless  the simple glimpses of her that I was getting are now hours again and I love it, I absolutely love it.   She still is still sundowning and yes she will still parrot but when she is there, she's really there and she lets me know it.  Mom has attitude again and for a couple hours, it's just like old times.
The other day she remembered that she was a smoker and said "Get me a cigarette".  I reminded her that she doesn't smoke and she said with anger "Yes I do!!" and for a minute we were arguing back and forth. All the time I was thinking that I have my mother back.  Another day she said "I'm constipated," and demanded that I get her the all mighty orange juice (read an earlier blog to understand this).  Yesterday at lunch, while I was busy helping Evelyn eat her ice cream, mom slowly moved her hand and I helped her to grab the spoon.  She wanted the ice cream that was in front of her and as I fed Evelyn, I watched as mom tried to hard to use the spoon.  Sadly, she threw it down in frustration because physically she isn't better and she is well aware of that too.
I was also hoping that physically she would improve.  I tested that with minced food, praying that she would swallow and that the connection had returned, it hasn't.  Yes, she can swallow liquids but even puree must be chased with a drink of water from a straw.  The ice cream melts to liquid so at least she can still enjoy that.  Her hands and her body still tremble and her muscles are rigid.  She still can't walk.  She still can't use her hands. She still can't dress herself.  She still must rely on everyone around her.  She is still incontinent and she still cries her very sad tears.
Yesterday afternoon dad and I had lunch with my aunt and uncle.  Mom had music therapy so we left her in the capable hands of the staff.  I returned at dinner and in between sips I asked her how music therapy was.  Mom told me that she didn't go and I asked why not.  Mom looked right at me and said "Lisa, I won't get better".  She has said that before but it was the way she said it that struck me.  It was like she was saying, "Lisa, face it, I'm not going to get better and music therapy isn't going to make me better".  I asked what she did instead and she told me "I watched TV and wet my pants".  Again, it wasn't what she said that had me surprised, it was the flippant tone she said it with and look in her eyes, as if she said "Well, I wasn't running a marathon,  I watched an old movie to get my mind off of things and then I pissed my pants because I wear diapers, really for someone so smart, you can really be stupid". 
I am not a is the glass half full or half empty person.  Instead, my thoughts are, whose thirsty.  That's how I have to be with this too.  Is her mind half full or half empty, it doesn't matter.  I will drink up every thought and every moment that I have.  Good or bad, happy or sad, I'll drink it in.