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Yesterday Genoa's new potty arrived from Target via UPS and now we're headlong into potty training.  It's happening much sooner and going much better than I expected it to, but I'm quickly remembering that not everything about giving up diapers is sunshine and roses.

THE GOOD
1.  Not buying diapers anymore!  Untold financial benefits!
2.  No more changing poopy diapers while she kicks and screams.
3.  Feeling proud of my kid is a big perk. 
4.  Successful potty training signals the end of the baby years and the beginning of the kid years.
5.  She LOVES it and gets to feel like a big girl.
6.  Did I mention that I won't need to buy diapers anymore?!

THE BAD
1.  Washing dirty underpants is actually WORSE than changing dirty diapers.
2.  I'm stuck inside my house because Genoa isn't 100% trained yet and I don't really want to put a diaper on her for fear of confusion.  I don't relish the idea of cleaning pee-pee out of the car seat.
3.  My bathroom is destroyed mostly just because of all the time we're spending in there.  I have to clean it constantly to keep up.
4.  My baby!  She's gone already!  Now I have a big kid.  Boo-hoo.
5.  It's only been 24 hours and I'm already sick of hearing myself say "Do you need to go potty, Genoa?" in that annoyingly cheerful, yet secretly nagging voice.
6.  My knees hurt from too many hours spent on the bathroom floor using said encouraging voice.

For the record, I have literally ZERO potty-training advice.  I feel like children are ready when they're ready and my only job is to recognize the signs and encourage the progress.  I tried to potty train Alex at this age (20.5 months) and he would NOT have it.  But at 26 months, he was totally ready and potty-trained completely, including nights, in less than a week.  He was so ready that all it took was a simple bribe.  He wanted a silly red play vacuum that was on sale for $7 and I agreed to give it to him as long as he stopped wearing diapers.  He's basically been potty trained ever since (well, he did go through a major poop-holding stage for a while, but thankfully that's all over).

I'm not even positive that Genoa will completely train right now, but all the signs point to yes.  She's been telling me for months now when she needs to go potty and now that the potty chair is here, she's definitely using it.  I'm trying not to pressure her and we'll just have to see how it goes.