Maybe I'm a chump for not lying about my travel date, but I can report that the two-week window for expediting worked in our case. We had applied regular with 12 weeks to spare, as the local agent said theirs were getting done in 10 weeks, no problem! It appears the state dept. hadn't really started to work on it until it hit the 2-week window. But with a few pleading calls, they moved it to the front burner, and I didn't have to drag my son down to the regional office to reapply for the passport. The passport showed up as complete the night before our scheduled appointment.

FYI, if you do need to go to the regional office, they require just new photos, but not a new birth certificate (at least that's what they told me over the phone).