There are many individual windows of time during the course of parenting a child that you should not take for granted. Everyone tells you to travel and go to restaurants when your child is an infant because it gets much, much more difficult to do these things as you begin to factor in mobility and nap schedules and meltdowns. LISTEN TO THIS ADVICE. It is good, sound advice. That sweet, sweet window of immobility and long stretches of sleep… It flies by.
One window in particular of which we weren't fully aware and certainly not fully appreciative is that blissful period during which your child is aware and logical enough to be talked down from the ledge with harmless white lies of what we may or may not do "when we get home" or, my favorite, "tomorrow" — but at the same time his memory is not good enough to actually remember said harmless white lies and hold you to them.
The window of ignorance. The window of innocence. The precious window of bargaining power in which you ALWAYS have that upperhand called long-term memory.
That window, my friends, has closed.