Advice on Toilet Training

Mackenna is 20mths now and is starting to display the signs that she is ready to start toilet training.  I'm a bit lost on the whole thing, and want to hear about other Mum's experiences and get some advice.  I haven't done any real research or reading as yet, except for the Huggies Toilet Training Guide, which I find a bit general and vague in details, so I'm pretty raw on the whole subject!  (I will refer to pooing as 'going' in an attempt to not upset anyone's tummy or ruin anyone's dinner!!)

I have been letting her come into the toilet with me and she has learnt the motions of getting some paper, wiping (although her wiping is quite often half way up her back, rather than anywhere near her bum,) putting the paper in the toilet, saying "bye, bye" to it all (that's just a common thing to anything that is going away or finishing... bath water, stories or TV shows that are finishing, the laptop when I close it, ingredients of her meals that are being put away....  literally anything) putting the lid down, flushing and then washing and drying her hands.  She's got it nailed now and is often 2 steps ahead of me (because she doesn't actually complete the action, just do it for a second and move onto the next thing.)

She has started coming up to me immediately after going, touching her nappy saying "poo poo".  I think it's great, because she is aware that she has gone and is effectively telling me that she wants it changed.  I'm also noticing her touching her nappy when she 'goes quiet' for a few seconds (and sometimes ends it with a whole body shake....  you know the one that you get when you've just finished a wee you really needed to do!) and does a wee.  She doesn't tell me about those, but I do make a point of saying "Are you doing a wee Mackenna?"  And she always looks at me and appears to be taking notice of what I'm saying.

After she does tell me she's gone, I immediately grab the potty (which I've put in the toilet) strip her off, empty the offending item into the potty (thankfully each one that she's done it has been easy to do this with.... not sure how I would go if it were a bit messier..... yerghhhhh!) and make her sit on it.  She barely gets her bum on it before she gets up again, because she wants to investigate what is in the potty (obviously, I don't let her get anywhere near it... again.. yerghhhhhhhh!) but I try as hard as I can without hurting her to at least keep her on there long enough to give her encouragement that that is what we are suppose to do.  Then we get some paper and wipe, and go through the motions of emptying it into the toilet, flushing, cleaning out the potty, washing her hands and getting dressed again.    Throughout all of this, there is lots of encouragement and explaining to her what we are doing.  I also stop and see if she is able to say any 'keywords' that relate to going to the toilet and encourage those.

She also often goes after waking up from a sleep, where I just get her up and change her, but I'm thinking that getting her aware that she wants to go first is probably better than putting her through the 'drama' of the potty (it does take us about 10mins to do the whole cycle at the moment, but that's because she's still learning and is a bit fiddy with things...  I know that will get better over time and with practice) to just get her up and change her straight away, while most time she is still just waking up.  She is also calm and not fidgety on the change table at this time, so it's actually not such a chore to change her nappy.  (It normally takes us about 5 mins, because she won't sit still!!)

I am interested to get any tips on how I get her from telling me after she's gone to letting me know she wants to do one before she does it and in time to get the potty and get her sorted on it.  My thoughts and gut feeling is to just continue doing what I am doing and it will come naturally to her through repetition and encouragement.  She doesn't have a particular time of day that she always does one, so I can't plan or predict it around any 'time' in particular at the moment.

Anything you can share from your experiences would be so gratefully received.  I'm not going to push it or force her with it at all, she is still only just coming up to 21 months, so I think what she is doing is awesome!  I'm just keen to see if there is anything that has worked for others that might just work on her to get it done quicker.  I'm good with her staying in nappies for a while yet too (and not Pullup type... proper nappies) if that's what it takes, but again, if I can help her out of them quicker, then I'm happy to try.

Thanks in advance.  Comments either below or on FB would be so appreciated :)