Help please

Hello everybody. I am very much starting to have a blast with this new hobby of mine that is photograpy, even if I am still a complete beginner. I experiment a lot, but there is one place where I am not comfortable, maybe due to a lack of patience or just because I am afraid to try different things, and it's retouching a photo. I have PSE8, which I like, but would need to dig way deeper to get remotely confortable.

Here is my challenge. I like this picture below, which I took at a local zoo two weeks ago. Played with it a little, but I was advised to try and work the eyes a little ( brighten them ). Ouch... I'm afraid I don't know how to do that...

Anybody can help with two things:

1- Please explain how to do that in PSE8

2- Please feel free to play with my picture to make me understand and show the benefit

Thanks in advance.

Chris