Hi A., I can relate to your frustration! My daughter, who is now 3 yrs 2 mos. old, was showing all signs of readiness to potty train when she was 2 yrs. 5 months old. She absolutely knew she was *about* to go; could physically get her pants up and down; knew what the potty was for; and had no problems sitting on it. She just didn't feel like it or see the need, especially when she was busily absorbed in doing something else.
Knowing that she was fully ready and able, and understood the process, I then adopted a few strategies that made all the difference.
1. I didn't use pull ups; I used diapers. She was very much into wanting to be a "Big Girl", and diapers are definitely for babies. I didn't shame her or scold her; I just calmly told her that when she goes in the potty, she will get to wear panties like a big girl and won't have to wear baby diapers anymore.
2. I bought panties with her favorite characters on them. She loves Dora, and definitely wouldn't want to pee on Dora! I washed them so they were nice and soft, and I got a lot of them, because accidents do happen. I held these in reserve until...
3. I cleared my calendar for a whole weekend. Sometimes, a 3 day weekend is better. I got her little potty set up, had a favorite book of hers to read while she sat (and *only* when she sat, no other time), and then told her, "You are a big girl now, and you are going to use the potty now when you tinkle and poop, so let's take these nasty diapers off and put on these panties."
After that, she ran around in panties and I sat her on the potty every 20 minutes, without fail. I set a little kitchen timer for 3 minutes every time she sat, and when the timer went, she could get up. She resisted a little at first, but then really started getting into it.
When she had an accident, I didn't scold her, just told her to try and get it in the potty next time. Then I had her pick up the wet panties and put them in the bag...she didn't want to do that again.
She started feeling pretty good about being a big girl and made several comments about how soft her panties were!
I unfortunately came down with the flu in the middle of this process, so I put the potty next to the couch and crashed on the couch. I hadn't intended to fall asleep, but I had done, and she woke me up tugging on my sleeve to inform me that she had made a bowel movement in the potty, and was waiting for me to help clean her. Yay!!!
She has had only a few rare accidents since then. It seems we just needed that intensive weekend to matter-of-factly make the point that this is what we do: we use the potty.
All this said, children are ready at different times. I have potty trained four very different children, and there was no point in starting until they were consistently displaying signs of readiness. Once they were, though, a focused weekend usually did the trick.
Good luck!