"I don't want to learn how to swim like a fish"

Today I took Emilio to swim lessons. Emilio has been in swim lessons before. In Chicago we took the kids for 12 weeks to a public pool and although it wasn't very structured, they got acclamated to the water and learned to blow bubbles. At the beginning of the summer I took the kids to the Renton Aquatic Park and they took four days of "Fish School." Emilio did everything he was told and seemed to love the water. While in Portland in July my mom and I took Gabi and him to Grant pool where I grew up taking swimming lessons. He loved going down this really fast slide with kids that were bigger than him and probably did it 20 times. He also was totally relaxing on his back when I was helping him float, and he was dunking his whole head under the water as well. So, I thought, this kid is ready to learn to swim, i want to keep him exposed to the water. I set up a lesson at Swimmer's Lane which is only 7 minutes from our house. Okay, backtrack a little here, he was going to start preschool yesterday, but there was this big misunderstanding and lack of information a few weeks ago with the school and I, and quick end to the story, we can't afford this preschool, so he's not going. I feel fine about him not going to school. I didn't get any warm fuzzies from the teacher and was worried she wouldn't like working with a spicy kid like Emilio and, he has two more years to do preschool. We will do it later. Anyway, I signed him up for swimming lessons instead. It is a family owned pool, they start lessons at 3 years of age, and there are only 3 or less children in the class at a time. To make things even better, they have a little gated play area where I can play with Gabi during the lesson. So, we've been talking with Emilio about his teacher's name, how I won't get in the pool with him, but watch on the side, and he was acting a little nervous. When we arrived early today to let him see what it was all about, he told me he was going to be shy with the teacher. We watched the end of a little girl's lesson and he decided to take his shirt and sandels off, but when it was time to get in the pool he promptly replied, "I don't want to learn how to swim like a fish." The teacher started working with another little boy in the class while Emilio put on his best pouty face and folded his arms across his chest. Eventually he put his feet in the water, but anytime the teacher would offer to take him in he would say, "I'm not ready yet," with a very rude tone of voice. I told him we could go home, but he didn't want to do that either. I was frustrated. At one point the teacher said, "Well, you sure are handsome," and he replied, "I AM NOT HANDSOME!" WHat a little poop. Finally after twenty minutes of sitting there, he got in and took a ride on the noodle with the teacher to retrieve a toy that she had him throw out. He starting kicking and blowing bubbles. I told him "good job," and he shot me a dirty look. I decided to sit quiet the rest of the class. He then dunked under water to retrieve toys that had sunk, and the teacher said, "see, you can do this, you've been teasing me all along." When he got out of the pool, he had a big smile on his face, and said, "you are proud of me mommy." I said "yes, I am," and thought let's try and make it through the whole class next Wednesday instead of only the last 10 minutes. He did say he wanted to go again. I guess he just needed some time to warm up to the idea of going in without mommy or daddy, and he had to observe his new teacher and see if he could trust her. I understand. He also doesn't like to feel pressured to do anything he doesn't want to do or he doesn't feel comfortable with. I guess that's normal for his age. I'll keep you posted on how my little fish does next week.