Unclear on the Gusset

Calling all sock knitters! Calling all sock knitters! Please respond to a knitting distress call!

Help me out here.

In my first socks I followed The Knitwit Sock Pattern and my heel flap looked fine until I followed the gusset directions, picked up 10 slipped stitches along each side, and continued. While I think I followed the directions correctly, somehow the flap curved around and the turn ended up midway through the sole of the heel.

I decided maybe it was because I'd picked up too few stitches for how many rows the heel flap was long? (It said to make it 2.5" so I did) ...

See how it curves around and the turn isn't really where it's supposed to be?

So then I was trying to make a sock for my 4 year old, whose feet aren't a lot smaller than Eminoodles. I thought maybe the flaps on hers curled because I only picked up a little more than half the rows so that I'd get the 10 stitches per side it said to pick up. I tried to distribute those 10 evenly among the flap rows. But then it curved around and I thought maybe the too-few gusset pick ups were pulling it around the corner?

So on this sock I picked up 13 stitches on each side, because I had about that many rows (actually, about double the rows, because I was doing that slip-stitch double-thick heel thing - on both socks) ... anyway, because of that, my 36 stitch sock jumped to something like 52 stitches and it took a long time to decrease back down to the 36 stitches, and the whole while the gusset is big and flat and bloated.

I mean I realize it's supposed to be a little bigger, but wow, it's like he'd need a swollen broken ankle to *fit* the socks.

I haven't frogged it back to the flap yet because I'm just confused. Plus it's a lot of work and I don't want to do it over, LOL. But seriously.

I don't really get what's going on during the flap-and-turn-and-gusset. I mean, I see where the stitches go, but I'm not sure how to get them to work together.

Am I doing something *way wrong* ? Or ... what?

Also, what's up with that little hole at the top of where I picked up stitches. I know it LOOKS like I didn't pick up close enough to the edge, but if anything I went a bit too far and somehow picked up something that was on the edge of the two parts. I don't know, I'm just confused.

See how *square* it looks in these instructions? No bloat. No curved flap.

Should I frog back the bubble-footed sock, or persevere since I'm almost done and a 4 year old won't care anyway? He's just happy to be getting socks.

But I need to have all this figured out before I do MY socks! :-D

Can you help me get a clue?