Blinks outside the eye group

I'm pretty new to CA and this is my first post here.  This is difficult to explain.  I have a simple puppet, a heart icon with a face.  The pupils are large so I've used the technique of putting the eyes behind the face, with eye holes cut out.  The character has large eyelashes which extend beyond the area of the eyeholes, so I needed to put the blink above the eye group and face art in my Illustrator file. The blink is a cycle layer (4 different layers).  

Because the blinks are not within the Eye groups, I couldn't figure out how to get them to still be triggered by my actual on-camera blinking.  So I had to use a trigger (B) to get them to fire.  Is there a way to get them to work as a real blink, triggered by my actual eyes blinking even when the blinks are on a layer above the eye groups?

Also,  I'm experiencing problems with the blink cycle even as triggered with the "B" key.  The eyebrows and mouths disappear during the blinking.  And only one eye blinks correctly and actually cycles through all the cycle layers.  The other eye just disappears for the duration of the blink.  I noticed that if I have the Left Blink folder above Right Blink in my Illustrator file, then the left blink will work correctly in CA, but the right will not.  If I move the Right Blink folder above the Left Blink in my Illustrator file, then the right blink will work in CA and the left will not.  

I'm extremely confused here.  Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated.  I've included a link to the puppet.

Thanks

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e619ji2t27jptpt/Loveji%2004.puppet?dl=0