How to tell she's extraordinary

beautiful snapshot.  Love it! Couple of points.

S2, L1 - I'd cut the 'and'

S2 L3 - nine-year-old is hyphenated, i believe (by the way, i love the way you can picture this as her having a fist for 9 years. To me it ads to this image of this little girl who fights for everything)

S3 L2 - I wonder if parentheses might really give a nifty aside affect, at once de-emphasizing the gumball machine grammatically, but drawing attention to it both visually and by adding that semi-conspiratorial editorial tone that mothers have 

And, by the way, she gets that from her Mom. I happen to know the woman a bit, and she's absolutely extraordinary.