thanks for the assist.
i ended up changing the following settings:
on iphone: settings > default calendar > under icloud i selected "home"
on iphone: settings > accounts > fetch new data > set to "push" (top of screen) and set fetch to "automatically" (bottom of screen)
on macbook air: calendar > general tab > default calendar set to "home" (same as on iphone)
on macbokk air: calendar > accounts > selected icloud and set refresh calendars to "push"
now when i enter something on my iphone calendar it immediately shows up on my macbook air calendar.
additionally, i can delete the same entry on my macbook air calendar and it deletes it immediately from my iphone calendar.
everything is synced! hope this helps anyone else experiencing this issue.