Former President Bush And First Lady, Barbara Doing Better

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HOUSTON (AP) - Former President George W. Bush says his father, the 41st president George H.W. Bush, and mother, Barbara Bush, are doing "much better" as they're being treated for illnesses at Houston Methodist Hospital.

The nation's 43rd president, in his first comments since his parents have been hospitalized, offers thanks on Instagram for messages "of love and support for Mother and Dad," that supporters' prayers are working because "41 and Mom are doing much better today and fighting on."

George H.W. Bush is being treated for pneumonia. Barbara Bush is recovering from bronchitis.

The younger Bush says he and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush, "look forward to representing them" at Donald Trump's inauguration Friday in Washington.

Meantime, former President George H.W. Bush may be hospitalized and in intensive care, but the 41st president's twitter account is active, offering "hearty congrats" to former Houston Astros baseball player Jeff Bagwell on his election to the baseball Hall of Fame.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath says while the 92-year-old Bush didn't physically type the tweet Thursday, he did approve it from his room at Houston's Methodist Hospital.

Bush calls the Astros' slugging first baseman a "good friend and great player" and that his election Wednesday into Cooperstown is well deserved.

Bush also was a first baseman when he attended Yale, and was captain of the Yale team that played in the first College World Series in 1947. As president, he kept his first baseman's glove in his desk in the Oval Office, and he and Barbara Bush frequently have attended Astros games since he left the White House.

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