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When I first started aikido, I felt really slow and clumsy, and went to two to three classes a week. I took it slowly, and practiced irimi tenkan, front rolls, and bokken strikes on my own. Once I felt comfortable, I jumped in and did everything I could while not being overwhelmed.
Now that it's almost been a year since I've started, I'm going to three to four classes a day (except for tuesday when I only go to one, and Saturday, when there's only two). I don't really have a sense of how much I'm progressing because it seems like just another everyday activity. The only way I see my progression is that my rolls seem to be getting smoother. But I might not be getting better because I'm not noticing how much I suck--whenever I feel like I'm doing everything really badly, that's when I'm actually getting better. Right now, though, I could care less how much I'm progressing--I'm just really enjoying training, applying myself all I can towards improving my technique. I really like the quote by Musashi, "The purpose of today's training is to defeat yesterday's understanding."
But, anyway, I'm pretty sure it's normal at first to feel like you're not really catching on at first. Or ever, for that matter. And you're right that it's good to keep a good sense of humor about it--when I started, I just kept getting fustrated with myself and didn't nearly have as good of a time as I do now. It's important to keep a good sense of humor towards yourself later on in training, too, not to beat yourself up about it (although I don't mean that you should not notice your mistakes and not apply yourself the most you can.)
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