listing sub-subpages in subpage by date

I have several subpages, a constantly growing list, all under one subpage. I want that page to be an archive page that links to all of them, and I’ve tried dozens of versions of code and I can’t get the links to sort in the order of most recent to oldest–only oldest first.

And, when I do sort by date, I get this weird glitch where the word “Pages” comes up in the upper left corner, plain black lettering and overlapping my column—the same code, without being organized by date does not cause this glitch.

Here are a couple things I’ve tried:

‘

<?php wp_list_pages(‘sort_column=post_date&show_date=created’); ?>

‘

—————–

‘<?php
if($post->post_parent)
$children = wp_list_pages(“sort_column=menu_order&title_li=&child_of=”.$post->post_parent.”&echo=0″); else
$children = wp_list_pages(“sort_column=menu_order&title_li=&child_of=”.$post->ID.”&echo=0″);
if ($children) { ?>

<?php echo $children; ?>

<?php } ?>’

I’ve linked to two images, both are using the second set of code. The first image is using the menu_order and title parameter for sort column, the second is using the menu_order and post_date parameter for sort column (this is the glitchy one), but it doesn’t matter what I use, post_author, post_name, post_title…they all give the same glitch. And if I try only one parameter, excluding the menu_order parameter, I get a blank page.
No Glitch, title ordered
Glitch list, date ordered
Note–I temporarily renamed these files by date.

So, I need help fixing the date thing–I want this to function like an archive page, and like a normal wordpress page–when people come to it they see the most recent thing first, not the other way around, and I need it to be in code that can be on the individual subpage, because if I edit the theme code I don’t think I can make it affect the subpage and not the sub-subpage pages.

Also, I don’t know if it’s possible, but it would be really cool if the list showed the subpages in order by date, and also displayed the dates for the subpages–without my having to put the dates in the title or anything. There isn’t any archiving system for subpages and this is the closest thing I could think of.

Help please!