Knitting Problem, Please Help

First of all, I want to say that there is a part of me that wants to know why in the world am I struggling with knitting, when I know crocheting so much better. I could be finished with this baby sweater, well, at least a lot further along, if I were crocheting. But I really enjoy knitting and want to be a better knitter!! So I'm trying to make this work. Even though I messed up on so many rows and if I was giving this to a person who knits I'd be embarrassed since they could easily see all the times where I messed up. One of my knitting friends one time said she frogs out as much as she knits and that just made me think that if I had to do that, I'd never knit again. Because I have NEVER had to rip out crocheting rows over and over and over and over to get it right. Well, to be honest, the last baby sweater, I did have some confusion getting the one front side right with the neck and shoulder decreases, but I was okay on the second side.

So, I'm having a problem with the baby sweater I'm knitting. The first piece is the back and in spite of all the messed up stitches and rows where I lost track of which row I was on in the pattern (even though I was using a row counter) from what I can see, the shape is correct. The problem is with the second part, which is supposed to be the RS of the Boy's Left Front. The pattern doesn't show what the pieces should look like when completed, so I'm not sure if I ended up decreasing on the correct side. The last baby sweater I crocheted, the decreases were on the shoulder side.

The pattern is here: Bernat Softee Baby Hooded Baby Jacket

I am hoping that one of my experienced knitter friends can help me figure out what I'm doing.

One of my big problems I've always had (and not paid much attention to) is which side is the right side or the wrong side. Especially when the stitch pattern I'm using looks (to me) the same on both sides.

On to my confusion:

The pattern says: "1st row of pattern is RS for boy and WS for girl."

Confusion No. 1: The first row of the pattern is not the casting on row, right?

That sentence also tells me that EITHER side could be the RS or WS. If both sides were exactly the same width, then it wouldn't matter which side is which; however, according to the pattern, the Boy's Left Front will be narrower than the Right Front, since the Left Front begins with 25 stitches as opposed to the 31 stitches on the Right Front.

So I'm following the pattern and I get to the part where it says, "...proceed in moss st pat as given for Back until 11 rows less than Back have been worked..." uh... how in the world do I count 11 rows of moss stitch pattern? I guesstimated that... Then it says, "thus ending with WS facing for next row." Now at this point I'm not sure if I've ended on the WS or RS, but I continue on thinking how can it matter since both sides look exactly the same.

Confusion No. 2: In hindsight, it becomes obvious that I need to be paying attention to which side is the right side or the wrong side. When I think about this logically, I tell myself since the casting on row isn't the first row (RS), that means the second row is. The tail string would be at the left side of the casting on row, so the second row the string would be hanging off to the right side. Correct? So looking at the picture above, that's the RS showing. Correct?

Confusion No. 3: Now I'm at "Shape neck: Next row:" Decrease at neck edge... Uh... which side is the neck edge? Since I don't know which side is RS or WS, I am not sure which side should be the neck side. And secondly, how did I miss that little detail -- that my decreases should be on the neck side? It looks like I need to frog the Left Front down to where I start decreasing and decrease the other way. I have seen patterns that go either way - there is decreasing at the shoulder, or there is decreasing at the neck. But the picture of the baby wearing the hooded sweater, it doesn't seem there is any decreasing at the neck side?

So, knitting friends... in your expert opinion, do I need to frog that Left Front down to where the decreases begin and make the indention on the other side?

Until next time.